The Naruto Experiment
by Zabzab
Summary: All the villagers, save the Hokage, hate Naruto. Naruto has since long stopped to question why and answers hatred with disdain. So he does not understand what Shino and Shikamaru want with him. M for safety. OOC. AU. No Yaoi. No OC. My utmost efforts to write something decent. You've been warned.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Dear readers, a few words before you begin. I do not own Naruto. However, this is a work of fanfiction. The Naruto you will read about here is definitely mine, just as the other characters will be, as well as the universe. This means I will NOT consider any comments about OOCness and AUness in regard to Canon. I will do this disclaimer once and once only, and if you intend to post a comment about those two points, you better be logged, because I WILL suppress them. You're free to critic my work otherwise.**

Outside, the day was bright and the sky perfectly clear. Lifeless blue eyes looked back at him as Naruto observed himself in the mirror. It was the beginning of November, but the weather was still warm; the autumn in Fire Country was longer than anywhere else after all. The boy tried to smile at his reflection but only managed a grimace of a sort. Birds sang in the trees, which were still donning a robe of gold, copper, and blood. The strange whiskers that marred his cheeks seemed like they were falling, like those of one unhappy cat. Naruto sighed heavily as he passed a hand through his all too bright blond hair. Today was a school day, and the young boy wanted nothing more than hole up in his apartment. The perspective to attend the Academy was all but appealing to him. But if he chose to play hooky, then it would go up the ladder and before the end of the day, he would end up chased by masked ninja and brought before the Hokage himself.

It was not an honor for Naruto to be confronted with the highest authority of Konoha village. It simply meant he had no one at home the teachers could complain to. The boy was an orphan, and no matter how sweet the Hokage was with him, even letting Naruto call him grandpa, it was not a substitution.

The blond gazed yet again at his reflection in his crackled mirror and tried to summon as much strength and willingness he had inside of him. He sighed again, a second after before he turned his back to the polished piece of glass and walked away to his entrance. His patched satchel was waiting for him. He had already prepared it yesterday, more out of a now ingrained habit rather than anticipation. Inside was a few pens and his lunchbox, prepared by his caretaker. There was nothing else, as the teachers had refused to lend him the few necessary books after the incident, as they all called it. Naruto had simply been attacked by a few classmates but had failed to convince even the Hokage he wasn't responsible. So now; all his books were waiting for him at the Academy. Except when the teachers deemed he didn't need it, which was more often than not the case.

Naruto slung his bag around his shoulder and exited his flat. He found himself on the external gangway of a two-story building made the traditional way. The apartment complex was made nearly entirely out of wood and was also completely deserted. Naruto was the only living human there. The blond took a deep breath of the crisp but not yet cold, air, but it failed to raise his spirits. Slowly, the boy took the staircase, ignoring carefully the messages painted, some engraved in the wood even, wishing him many unhealthy predicaments. They were old and the paint had dried long ago, and washing it away would consume time, resources, and energy Naruto knew he did not have.

It was relatively early but the streets of Konoha were already bustling with activity. People were going to and fro, running about their business. Naruto darted around, taking small alleyway, cutting through shortcuts, keen on neither seeing nor being seen by people. But the few who noticed him, and how could they not when his only garments were of the worst sort of neon orange, scowled as he passed them. Their heated glare burning the back of his head and their poisoned whispers cutting his ears, Naruto made his way to Konoha Central.

The buildings here were modern and traded traditional wood for concreted efficiency and coldness. They were nothing else than a badly healed scar dating from roughly six years back. Naruto hated this part of the city. It was lifeless, grey, and rough. It smelled of sweat, steel, and blood. The blond much preferred the old wards of the city, where it smelled of wood, spice, of the ochre extracted from the Monument, where the narrow streets and forgotten alley were numerous and allowed him to hide. Here in Central, everything was wide and large and illuminated and put in plain view. Naruto ran, hoping for the best but expecting the worst. The Academy was not far from here and maybe today he would make it without accidents. Suddenly his feet met with an obstacle and the blond boy fell. His hands kept him from hurting his face but they scraped painfully against the asphalted road, along with his knee. For a second, the boy stayed on all fours, waiting for a helping hand he knew wouldn't come. The snickers and barely held laughs stabbed at his heart as the boy stood up. Naruto swallowed the hard lump he had that clogged his throat and felt the prickling behind his eyes but refused to cry. It was a satisfaction he had decided not to give them any more. Wiping the blood and little gravel stuck to his hands on his pants, the boy resumed his way toward the Academy, this time at a brisk walk but not in a run; he wanted to avoid falling victim to another accident.

The remaining distance was unusually safely covered and Naruto entered the Academy's ground. They were still deserted at this hour, but they wouldn't be for long. Naruto made his way in the empty buildings, trying not to think about the mothers and the fathers who would soon accompany their children to this very place. After five minutes of navigating the maze that was the Academy, the blond reached his classroom. Naruto glanced for a second at the room he had no lost love for, before seating at his place at the back of the class, far removed from the blackboard. It was good he had perfect eyesight. Minutes drained like droplets of water falling from a leaking faucet, and the room slowly filled in with children of Naruto's age. No one gave him any greeting and the blond did not try to initiate any; he knew it was useless. The clock above the blackboard was showing five to eight when the teacher entered the classroom. It was courtesy for a ninja to arrive a bit earlier than what was asked. All children rose from their seat.

"Hello class." The man greeted with enthusiasm.

"Hello Kenji-sensei." The class answered as one, in a perfect show of discipline.

The teacher smiled. "Sit. Now everyone, you better all pay attention today because we're gonna talk about something complex but absolutely fundamental: chakra."

Whispers of anticipation fused from the now agitated group of children. Naruto watched dispassionately and waited for the teacher to establish a semblance of order.

"Now, now, quiet, quiet or you won't hear everything." The man chastised firmly, silencing the class. "Now, Uchiha-san please, help me distribute the flyers to everyone on the left side while I take care of the right."

Naruto grimaced. As per usual, he wouldn't get the flyer like everyone else. He already knew that even if he asked, the teacher would ignore him, or give him some sort of excuse even he could tell was false. The boy sighed. It was why he did not like school: whether he went or not, it would have the same effect on his knowledge. Teachers refused to teach him anything. Soon, everyone had a piece of paper with detailed information on it, save himself, as per his prediction. The blond felt his shoulders sag. He didn't feel like taking notes. The teacher would go fast. Slow enough that the other students with the flyer could follow, but too fast for him to write anything down.

"Alright, everyone!" The man began with the same enthusiasm he always seemed to have. "Who can tell me what chakra is?"

A few hands rose, without surprise belonging to clan-born children mostly.

"Yes, Yamanaka-san?"

"Chakra is the energy everyone has in them. Ninja developed techniques to use it to fight!" A blonde girl exclaimed, pride obvious in her voice, as she rose from her seat.

"Very good, Yamanaka-san. Now, does someone else knows what makes chakra?"

Again, hands belonging to children born in ninja clans shot in the air. Naruto wondered, not for the first time, why they were even there.

"Yes, Aburame-san?"

"Chakra is a mixture of our yin and yang energies, originating respectively from our mind and body." A boy, covered from head to toes in a big cloak and wearing sunglasses, answered in a monotone. Naruto silently asked himself, not for the first time, why the boy was wearing shades inside. And why the teacher was so accepting of it. The blond recalled the day Kiba Inuzuka had tried to come with glasses on, they had been confiscated faster than the boy's companion could say "woof".

"Correct Aburame-san. Chakra is indeed a mix of our body's strength and our mind's will. As such, everyone's chakra has the qualities of both the body and the mind; yin and yang, as Aburame-san said. Now on your flyer, you have a schematic of the human body: it details the place where chakra is produced, stored, and the chakra circulatory system. It works much like blood vessels with blood."

Naruto sighed again. He would have liked to see the drawing. He was sure it would something the teacher would test them on. And because he would never access it, he would again fail to have a good mark. The blond felt like his mouth was suddenly full of ashes. Why was he even here?

Naruto sat with his lunchbox on his lap, against the trunk of a big oak that had pierced the asphalted ground of a remote corner of the schoolyard. The blond could have gone inside, in the refectory like everyone else. He could have. He would never. The boy peered at the opened box. It was full of rice, various vegetables, and some meat. His caretaker did not like him, but apparently, she had decided against poisoning him with horrid lunch. He was grateful for that, whatever the reason was, as he dug in his plate.

He had since long finished when kids of various age started to trickle in the schoolyard. The lunch break was generously long, and the children were allowed to play various games, from cuju to chess. Naruto shrunk on himself and in the shadow of the tree. With enough luck, he would be left alone today. Minutes after minutes, children kept entering the schoolyard, and Naruto could hear the rumors of the cuju teams forming and of the people setting the pieces of strategy board games. Soon, the dull sound of a ball being hit in all direction and the cries and shouts typical of a team sport invaded the yard. Naruto refrained his curiosity at seeing the game; he knew he would not be welcomed among the spectators, so the blond settled on reading the book he had brought with him. From inside his satchel, the boy fished a rather big work of literature and immediately began to read.

His eyes trailing and devouring the countless printed words on the pages did not see the group of ten boys nearing him before his book was snatched from his hands.

"What ya readin' minezumi?" One boy, taller and older than the blond, spat mockingly.

"Tales of the Kingdoms of Guang- Guangbai and Mohuhei?" Another one sputtered before slamming the book against the ground and stepping on it. "The heck is that shit?"

Naruto winced at the sight of his book being damaged but did not respond. They would leave like they always did. He just had to be patient and endure.

"Neh, rat, how is it to not have parents?" A third boy, this one Naruto's age, asked with a tone that made the blond sick.

"Ah ah! Yeah, who would want to be his parents anyway?! He's so ugly." A random voice shot from the circle now surrounding Naruto.

"My mom's says he's a demon! I bet that's why he don't have parents!" Another one whipped.

"I'm- I'm not a demon."

The whisper stopped the group in their tracks of insults.

"What did ya say?" The first boy stared hard at the blond boy. When Naruto refused to meet his eyes, the older boy took a fistful of blond hair and lifted Naruto's head, eliciting a cry from the boy. "I asked what did ya say?"

"I'm- I'm no- not a demon," Naruto said, his voice quivering.

"Hey guys, ya heard that?" The boy whipped his head back to look at his accomplices who all nodded. "What ya say we learn him a lesson about what he is?"

Naruto shuddered at the grin he could only hear but knew was there, on the face of the bully. His eyes darted, left and right, pleadingly, silently asking for some of the boys to help him. His hopes were quickly dashed, as every boy surrounding him had the same twisted smile. The blond felt his heart skip a beat, then heard the strangely out of place sound of a pen's cap opening. Blue eyes widened as he heard the older boy talk once more.

"I say we write what he is on his face, so he don't forget!"

Before Naruto could shout, the boys dogpiled him, seizing his arms and legs, sitting on his body and turning his head straight. He felt tears fall and roll on his cheeks.

"Disgusting whiskers! I bet his mum was an animal!"

"Yeah, he is like a fox!"

"His mom was a fox!"

"A fox whore!"

"His mom was a fox! His mom was a fox!"

The pungent odor of a permanent marker invaded Naruto's nose, and as the chemical smell permeated his brain, making him dizzy, another sensation crackled to life inside his chest. Naruto felt the wet sensation of the marker on his left cheek, the ink being deposited on his skin, and the feeling grew from some amber to a fire. As the boys kept singing their improvised jingle, the fire roared. And suddenly, the blond saw the world red.

His legs kicked and spasmed, so brusquely and so brutally the one sitting on him was thrown off. His left arm tore off from the grip maintaining it on the ground and shot towards the head of the one boy writing on his face. With a brutal yank, his head was free of the hand holding his hair and with a snap, his jaw closed on the one holding the pen. His felt his teeth sink in flesh and tasted copper. His left hand found something squishy, and with a push, pierced it. A scream vibrated his eardrums but he ignored it. His free legs kept kicking and kicking, impacting body parts. His right now somehow released too, he pushed, with all his force and whipped his head in the opposite direction. There were a satisfying red sound and another wet cry. And suddenly, he felt weightless for an instant.

"What is happening here?!"

The red shroud hazing his vision tore to shreds and Naruto recognized the voice of a teacher.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was smoking his pipe when a ninja in the official teaching garb barged in his office, manhandling without mercy a young, blond boy the Hokage immediately recognized.

"Oy!" The old man thundered. "Be a little careful with Naruto here."

It was an order and the man immediately eased his grip on the boy's shoulder. Hiruzen nodded with satisfaction before he had to hold a gasp at Naruto's appearance. The boy was bruised and battered. His clothes had tears in them, his hands showed clear signs of corporal punishment, he had one eye nearly closed, and he had the word demon half-inscribed on his face in black. It took the old man his full willpower to not pulverize the furnace of his pipe.

"Report, now."

The ninja deposited a sheet of paper on the mahogany desk and stood ramrod straight.

"All is consigned in this report Hokage-sama. The… Boy, here, attacked his comrades during lunch-break without provocation. He hurt a few of them and severely harmed-"

"That's not true!"

The roar was so powerful, despite the juvenile voice bellowing it, that the ninja started and the Hokage felt his eyes widen minutely despite himself.

"Silence Uzumaki!"

"No! I won't shut up! You're a liar! You're lying! I-"

"Silence in front of the Hokage!" The man screamed as his hand rose for a powerful slap.

Before the man could register what was happening, Hiruzen blasted him with killer intent so potent the ninja fell on his back, like struck by lightning, his face deathly white.

"What is your name chunin?" The old man asked, his voice barely a whisper.

The man whined. "Ide- Idetake Shusei, l- Lord Hokage."

"ANBU. Take chunin Idetake for a tour of the TI department. I've heard Anko needs to relieve some stress."

The floored man paled more, a feat no one in the room would have thought possible, and sputtered something before two shadows disappeared with him. In the dead silent office, one flabbergasted Naruto Uzumaki and one visibly weary Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at each other.

"Do you want to sit down, Naruto-kun?" The Hokage broke the golden atmosphere first, startling the blond boy.

"No."

The Hokage sighed imperceptibly at the bite there was in the voice and took the paper the chunin had left on his desk, his eyes rapidly scanning the document. The old man shook the paper and threw a questioning glance at Naruto.

"Is it-"

"They started first! They attacked me!" The boy stated bluntly before Hiruzen could say anything, his eyes not leaving the Hokage's.

"Was that reason enough to hit them?" The old man tried to reason.

"They hit me! They wrote demon all over my face!" The boy was swelling like some sort of angry cane toad. "They called my mother a fox!" The blond hurled, all restraint forgotten, gunning a hateful glare at the Hiruzen.

The Hokage felt a painful pang in his chest and almost face-palmed. He looked hard at the young Naruto in front of him but could see no lie in the blue orbs that stared balefully back. For a second, the Hokage felt his heart miss a beat. The resemblance was striking and those eyes had definitely the same power to see through people. Or in Naruto's case, they at least gave the feeling. The old man swallowed his discomfort discretely and sighed more audibly. It seemed the Academy teacher had given a very truncated and partial version of the events. It was hard to believe a ninja would lie to him, the supreme commander, regarding such a matter, listening to personal feelings rather than following the discipline that was required of them.

It had been a month since the new school year had started and Naruto had enrolled in the Academy. Reports of all kind had made their way up to his office; in barely a month, the boy had been accused of all the turpitudes imaginable and then some. He had asked the boy about nearly all of them, but Naruto had been silent every single time, just accepting the situation. Today was the first time the boy had snapped as he had. Hiruzen took a second to ask himself if all the previous reports had been falsified.

"Naruto-kun." He saw the boy start and bite his tongue at his call. "Naruto-kun,' the Hokage began, with his most soothing voice. "I want to hear your version of the facts." The blond boy kept glaring daggers and murder at him but refused to speak.

"Naruto-kun, please, it's important."

"Why?" The acid in the boy's voice startled Hiruzen. "You're not gonna do anything about it." The boy's chest inflated again with anger and heat. "You're like the rest." The tone came out like gravel grinding against each other. "You hate me!" The blond screamed, tears drowning his blue eyes.

"Naru-"

"You hate me like everyone else! You think I'm a demon, don't you!"

"Naruto, listen to m-"

"No! I hate you! I hate all of you! I wanna die!" The boy's voice cracked like glass shattering on steel. "I wann-," a sob racked his body and tears flowed. "I wanna die."

Hiruzen engulfed the crying boy in his robes, silently cursing bloody murder at the world, at the village he was sworn to protect, at his own shortcomings and ineptitude, and took him in a hug, his own heart falling to shred and the back of his own eyes prickling.

"No Naruto, no. I don't. You're Naruto Uzumaki, and you're my grandson before my grandson. You're not a demon, you're not a fox, you're Naruto Uzumaki." Slowly, the logorrhea assuaged the blond child's cries and after minutes Hiruzen could swear lasted longer than hours, the boy was calm. The Hokage nearly cried himself when he saw the vacuous eyes gazing at the void.

"Naruto." At his call, the boy threw him a lifeless glance. "I want to hear what happened. I want to hear what happened in the Academy for a month. I want you to tell me everything."

Hiruzen made a conscious effort not to grind his teeth to dust and to reign in his anger while vowing the superstitious idiots under his rule as well as his own incompetency to public obloquy. The Hokage could pride himself in rarely committing mistakes, but the one he did make had always far-reaching consequences. Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, Hiruzen cursed his position. He had made several mistakes concerning Naruto, the first and worst being to trust the village so completely. To believe the people would mourn their dead and let them pass on, and be reasonable enough not to buy into the ridiculous whispers about Naruto and see him as the child he was. Then, Hiruzen's second mistake had been to let the rumors go wild and haywire, simply because he had no idea such rumors were even circulating. When he had eventually publicly addressed the problem, the harm was done.

Hiruzen sighed as he considered his option. He couldn't have the entirety of the teaching body executed, despite his burning desire to see the fools lose their life. It would solve nothing. Plus, no one had broken any law nor do anything that deserved the capital punishment. He could not fire them either: Konoha had competent ninja in drove, but it took something more to be a competent teacher. He would need to remind them of their role and position and give them clear orders. But he could not go much further. The population hated the boy, and too much done for Naruto could go as far as civil unrest; the wounds inflicted today by the boy to his assailants would already cause a headache. Yet the Hokage couldn't tell him to lie down and take it. First, because he did not deserve what was done to him, and second because he was training to be a ninja. What kind of ninja extended the left cheek when he was slapped, unjustly at that, on the right one?

For a second, the Hokage considered dispatching one ANBU team to the school but immediately squashed the idea. Konoha was very powerful but had not that much manpower she could spare an ANBU for such a task. And above all other consideration, it was unbecoming to punish children for the idiocy and mistakes of their parents. No, protection would stay as it was now. Hiruzen let self-loathing wash over himself as he hated his powerlessness at helping Naruto, before he stifled the feeling, keeping it from spiraling down further. The old man breathed in deeply, eyes closed. He had to trust Naruto would come out stronger, and not broken, from the ordeal. And the ordeal would be quite long. Hiruzen looked at the boy seated in the way too big guest chair and searched the blue eyes with his own brown ones. What he saw in the ocean of azure made his heart bleed but he steeled himself. He would have to ask so much of the kid. Shame overwhelmed him and his gaze shifted away from the boy he had sworn to protect. His eyes lost themselves for a moment in the flock of curly blond hair the child sported, before he looked at Naruto once more, peering again into the blue orbs. Anger and betrayal were swirling in them, as well as pain and weariness. Yet there also was something else. In the corner of the cerulean eyes, in the folds of the scowl, Hiruzen saw a plea.

"Naruto," the Hokage sighed, much to his dismay. "I must ask you-"

"No." The boy interrupted in a scathing voice, not letting any time to finish. "If they hit me I will hit them back." He snarled, and Hiruzen started imperceptibly at the animalistic feel the boy's voice held, as well as at the grimace of anger his face was contorted into. The old man sighed. Now the boy was angry at him again. "Do you wish to tell me anything else, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen paled; the boy had never called him that. He was losing him just like he had lost so much. The old man felt his heart ache before his eyes hardened. No more. "Naruto-kun, I want you to hear me out!" He said in a tone that froze the boy, who nodded, glued to his seat by the intensity of his voice. "I want you to never incite conflict and to avoid confrontation as much as possible. I want you to endure." Before the blond could protest the man raised a placating hand. "But if they are looking for it Naruto," the Hokage smiled grimly. He knew it was another mistake, but at least the boy wouldn't endure alone. "Hit them back with as much as you have. I'll handle the fallout."

Naruto took a minute to wrap his mind around what the Hokage had just told him before a smile bloomed on his lips as he felt the scalding anger boiling his blood leave him like air escaping a balloon. "You- You mean it, Jijie?"

"I trust you Naruto. As long as you are not the one starting the fight, you're free to end it."

Naruto shuddered at the way the old man he called his grandfather had spat the word "end". The blond slowly nodded.

"But you must promise me to be absolutely, always, beyond and above reproach. And to never go too far."

The boy stared at the Hokage for five full, intense seconds, peering into the man's brown eyes to look for deception and lies. Naruto found nothing and relaxed his gaze, noticing a weight seemed to lift from the Hokage's shoulder as he did so.

"I-" Naruto frowned before steadying his quivering voice. "I swear. I will endure. But I won't let them step on me."

"Good." The Hokage nodded with a smile Naruto could only describe as satisfied, apparently appreciating the firmness of his tone. A golden minute passed before the blond started to fidget in the couch he was seated on. "Anything else you want to tell me, Jijie?" The boy asked, his previous anger all but forgotten.

"Why, don't you enjoy my company Naruto-kun?"

The blond sputtered for a moment, red flushing his face, before he threw an accusatory glare at the old man. "Jijie!"

The Hokage laughed, sonorously, before focusing his attention on the young boy again. "What has you captivated this time?"

"Well, there is this book…" Naruto began before he paled whiter than a ghost. "Jijie, I'm so sorry." The boy whispered, dipping his head down.

"What happened my boy?"

"My book, the book you gave me, during the fight…" Naruto found his voice was betraying him as he recalled the fate of the paper construct. The boy swallowed hard and threw a shy glance at the elder.

"It is alright Naruto. It is not your fault." The Hokage stated firmly, gripping Naruto's shoulder with a reassuring hand.

The boy nodded. "I hope it's not lost."

"Even if it is, I'll give you another version." The old man said with a smile. "Now Naruto, why don't you go home for today. I will warn," the Hokage almost spat the word, "your teachers you will not be here this afternoon. You can go back to the Academy tomorrow."

Naruto opened his mouth but closed it almost immediately. "Hmm!" The boy gave the elder a nod and a smile. "Jijie?"

"What is it Naruto?"

"Thanks. I love you," said the boy, gluing himself to the Hokage for a hug.

He was hated. It was the conclusion Naruto reached in front of the mirror of his small washroom. After his discussion with the Hokage had ended, he had been accompanied home by one of the masked ninja serving the old man. The ninja had lost no time with him and Naruto had immediately gone to the bathroom. He looked like shit. It was when his reflection had looked back at him he had had this strange, unwanted epiphany.

The signs had always been here, yet it had not been something easy to understand. At first, he had been too young and lacked a point of comparison. His caretaker, the only person he frequented on a daily basis, was an ageless woman who barely ever talked to him and never expressed anything in his presence. She was content with cooking for him, doing his laundry, and cleaning the little flat he lived in. However, he vaguely understood his village groomed soldiers, and soldiers had to be like weapons: sharp. In his understanding, it was only natural for someone not as equally sharp to cut themselves. But he had later come to know that not everyone in the village was a soldier. He was older by then and had also observed how people acted not only around him but around others. There was no doubt that something about him was different, for people used a special kind of voice and a special kind of eyes to scream and glare at him. Their words never sounded sweet and their looks were never soft.

But Naruto had reserved his judgment, because the old Hokage, the one he called his grandfather, had assured that he was imagining things. And Naruto had chosen to believe the old man. It had been a few months before his enrollment in the Academy, where, Naruto had been told, he would learn with people his age, and would be around people who would speak less harshly and look at him less heatedly.

But after a month of blatantly unfair treatment at the Academy and the afternoon events, the boy could not deny the truth anymore. Wherever he went, people would be the same: they would despise him. Empty blue eyes, the left one almost closed, gazed back as Naruto looked at his reflection, and he noted distractedly that some tears were rolling again on his whiskered cheeks. He had a black smudge on the right one, where his "comrades" had scribbled the word demon with a black pen earlier. The taste of copper flooded his mouth, and the scream of the boy he had bitten echoed in his ears, but vengeance had a bitter flavor, Naruto realized.

The undeniable reality of his situation did not make it any easier to accept. It was maybe a weird thought, but Naruto did not want to be hated. It was painful. It hurt him way deeper than the superficial cut, scratches, and hematoma did, as those healed quickly. It was rending his heart, constricting his lungs, twisting his intestines, tying his stomach in a knot. It was even more hurtful as he had hoped the Academy would be a change. He had trusted the old Kage, who was the only who spoke to him in a gentle voice and looked his way with a warm gaze.

He had not received what he had bargained for, and way more than he had ever received before. Adults were cruel, yet children his own age were crueler. A sob racked through his body and finally, Naruto cried the last of his tears. Swallowing the lump in his throat, the boy wiped his face with his sleeve, wincing a bit when he touched the tender, violet flesh around his left eyes. A question swirled amok in his head, simple in appearance yet one he could not, for the life of him, figure out. Why was he hated so much?

The boy suddenly bared his teeth, covered in blood belonging both to him and to the boy he had bitten, and snarled as heat overtook him. He had done nothing! Nothing that warranted to be treated the way he was. Whatever he did, anyhow he behaved, no matter right or wrong, people hated him, simply because he was him.

His lips closed and twitched downward and he felt his eyes prickle again. Simply because he was him. As incredible as this answer was, it was the only one he could reach. People hated him for him. Because he was there, among them. Because he existed. The very fact he was alive was offensive to the village like nothing else was.

Naruto looked at his hands. They were bruised from both the scuffle he had with the other children and the punishment the teacher had administered. The man had hit him with a wooden ruler, hard. Hard enough that he had broken the ruler. He would show them.

The boy clenched his hands into fists, and pain immediately shot through both his arms as blood seeped from torn skin. The heat left him as fast as it had come, to be replaced by a weight that settled on his shoulders. The boy offered himself a derisive smile. Now he was making empty promises. Show them. Show them what? He was nothing in their eyes, he wouldn't ever be anything. They wouldn't allow it. They wouldn't even give him a chance. Tears he had thought dried off at the very source fell anew on his cheeks.

It was unfair. So unfair. He was the only one they treated like that. The only one. How could they? How dare they? He was breathing, like anyone of them. He was thinking like anyone of them. He was hurting, like anyone of them. Heat invaded his core once again and he brusquely wiped the tears with a growl. Every last one of them. They would see. If his existence was such a disgusting thing to them, he would change his existence. He would become someone so powerful and important that they couldn't, wouldn't dare to look at him the way they glared, nor speak to him the way they barked. The boy thought back to the words the Hokage had told him. He would endure. But he would not bow to them. The mirror returned his ice cold, blue glare, and Naruto snarled again, his whiskers trembling like those of a hungry wolf. Outside, the day was turning to an orange twilight. They would crawl and tremble. Every last one of them. They would see.

"I will become Hokage. I swear it."

 **A/N: How about a chapter that shows how and why Naruto's dream was born?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Blah blah blah Not Dead, Owning Naruto Not.**

Naruto choked. The flock of blond hair swayed around the person's shoulders like a halo and a peal of crystalline laughter echoed. Naruto winced as the sound of grinding glass assaulted his ears. The figure hugged the boy. The blond felt his breath catch in his lungs as his side were shattered in pieces. The individual released him after one excruciating moment. The boy twitched and extended his hand toward the silhouette, reaching to grab at something, but he could find no purchase on the ethereal garment worn by it. There was the fact that they had never been close to each other in the first place; the shape was so far away in fact, Naruto could only perceive the blond hair. The shadow laughed again and started to walk down the road. Naruto willed his legs to fight and win against the black tar of anguish that engulfed his limbs in dreadful cement but it was a lost endeavor. He tried to cry, to scream, to howl after the departing woman, but the tar was already up to his mouth, pouring in his throat, strangling him, drowning him, killing him. Naruto struggled to escape the abyssal prison of dark, heavy fear but kept sinking lower in the despair. The boy hollered one last time and the black emptiness shattered with the blaring sound of an alarm.

The bed threw the blond off, the blanket trapping him in its knots and folds. Five full seconds kept him floored before sleep ceased to fog his brain and the damp white of his bed-sheets made itself know to him. His eyes slowly focused on the familiar room he was in, with the familiar nightstand, the familiar wardrobe, the familiar drawings all around on the wall. It took the blond a moment before he could get himself out of the sweat-drenched cover. Naruto slammed a hand against his alarm to shut down the cringe-worthy alert before he glanced with a grimace and teeth gritted at the mess he had made of his bed. He would need to change the sheets. Shakily, he made his way to his bathroom and splashed his face with ice cold water. Blinking to chase the droplet caught in his eyelash, he stared at his reflection in his mirror and flinched when the reflection stared back.

"You are so weak."

The blond snarled and broke the glaring contest he was ultimately fated to lose and flung his night garment against the wall, slipped on a sweatshirt and a pair of pants, some orange monstrosity he had bought on discount, stomped off to his entrance to hastily put some shoes on, and sprinted at full steam fueled speed toward his destination.

His respiration hitching, Naruto's fist impacted the wooden post hard enough for the skin to explode and the wood to protest. The boy huffed and, in a fluid motion, threw his other fist to punch the target while withdrawing the first one brusquely. He paid no mind to the blood escaping the scorched knuckles in rivulets, and he ignored the pain. The blond quickly lost himself in the stultifying motion, numbing his mind to prevent it from wandering. He had had the nightmare again. Naruto switched from punches to kicks and started attacking the wooden post with high and low roundhouses and vertical hits. He hated it. The boy exploded in a burst of speed and doubled the rhythm of his kicks, and old, dried bark started flying from the wooden post, torn off by the violence of the assault. He did not need it. Naruto began alternating between kick and punch, this time moving back and forth, closing in the post for a gyaku and getting out for a mawashi, feinting left, right, dancing around the post, shadow boxing against the piece of wood. A snarl etched itself on his face. He did not want it. With powerful exhalations, the blond kept striking the block of wood as if it had fatally insulted him. The only things he needed was the strength. The dull sound of wood being mauled echoes the clearing. The strength to prove a point to the village. The whistling of air whirling around his fist pierced the morning quiet. The strength to cow the glares and the whispers. Naruto snarled again and fury distorted his face. Strength to freeze the hate. With a kiai, the boy struck the post and wood shattered around his fist and sawdust exploded around him. White pain shot through his left hand and up his arm but it was in red anger Naruto howled, his fist embedded in the wood of the training post. For a second, the blond stood, stopped in time, unmoving, not breathing, held captive by his own attack before the snare was lifted.

Naruto breathed. Letting his wounded arm hang at his side, Naruto wiped the sweat from his brow with his good hand, before surveying his surrounding. He was still alone, and the sun was high already, early grey dawn having morphed to orange morning. Good. It meant he very probably would not have to vacate the training ground. Good. He had poured blood, sweat, and part of his anger at the training post but was certainly not feeling like dealing with people who'd obviously be obnoxious. Throwing a glance at his useless left, Naruto frowned. His routine, the physical part of it at least, was finished, but what was mildly upsetting was that he probably would not be able to do anything else with his left hand for the rest of the day, with the pain pulsing through it. However, what he had planned for today was not important enough to suffer through a broken bone. Plus, if he did, he would have to go to the hospital, and he would sooner die than go there. No, it would heal soon enough that he could avoid a stay at the madhouse if he was careful. After a second, the blond shrugged. Doing the exercises with the right hand only would be good enough anyway. Naruto threw his shirt away, wincing slightly when he had to pass his left hand through his sleeve, keept his blue eyes from looking down at his torso, and sat under an evergreen oak. He never fell sick, and reading and practicing his chakra control with a damp shirt was really uncomfortable. Not wasting more time, the boy took a leaf from the tree in the palm of his good hand and closed his eyes.

It was an exercise they had learned the theory of in the Academy, after they had been explained what chakra was, so long ago already. The goal of the manipulation was to funnel the life energy to make the leaf stick to the palm of one hand and then turning said hand horizontally, palm facing downward. The exercise was complete once the one practicing it could do it without thinking about it. Naruto inhaled a long, deep, and filling breath, eyes closed, before diving down in himself. The world collapsed and shrank to a singular space filled to the brim with chakra and overflowing. His breathing halted to a momentary still, Naruto basked for a moment in the ocean of warmth that was waiting for him in his abdomen. Even after five years or so, it was still incredible for him to think he, his body and his mind, was creating this pool of energy. An energy that could bend the world around him. Naruto enjoyed the sensation for a few more pulses before he focused on his task.

The boy observed his chakra, the way it was dripping naturally in his coils, like water overflowing from a glass, and noted with no small satisfaction the flow was plentiful but tame. And tomorrow, it would be even tamer than today. The blond eventually actively began to draw on the energy. The life force readily jumped in his coils, as if eager to answer his demands. The blond circulated the invigorating force through his body, letting the chakra seep in his muscles, his organs, and his bones. Soon, he was humming with power and he could feel the pain in his left hand subside. Chakra really was the remedy to all woe. Focusing the flow on his right hand, Naruto carefully allowed the energy to leak out of the tenketsu in his palm, trickle by trickle. His eyes shot open and looked at the leaf perfectly stuck to his palm. It was nowhere near enough. The blond took another leaf and this time, stuck it to his forehead. Then two more he placed on his elbows. Finally, two more he glued on the side of his knee. His eyes carefully avoided looking at his naked abdomen at all time.

"You are in control."

The rhythm of his diaphragm still precisely reigned in and controlled, the boy danced through a kata, still carefully channeling the chakra within him everywhere the energy would reach, ignoring the itch in his left hand. Naruto smiled in reminiscence of the difficulties he had faced to perform the exercise at first, five years ago, much less his own, more complex version of it. The blond smiled at how today he flowed from stance to stance like water with ease. He had discovered through his early, miserable attempts that he had a big amount of chakra, and that meant the relatively precise control of it necessary to achieve the exercise was difficult for him to attain. Still, the leaf exercise was the first exercise of Konoha to develop chakra control, the level one, nothing easier, and the old man had said strength could come in many forms but control was always its very foundation. So Naruto had chewed and swallowed the frustration bubbling inside him and had powered through. If control meant strength, then he would control. The kata finished, the boy examined himself under all side to check all the leaves were still where they were supposed to be. He knew the answer already, but seeing and touching all five leaves perfectly in place and undamaged brought a grin to his face, the last lukewarm remnants of his previously scalding hot anger bleeding off of it, enlarging the grin into a smile. The blond started another kata.

He would control as much as he could and maul a tree when he couldn't.

The sun had since long risen westward, shining upon a clear midday when Naruto ceased his routine, his last kata finished. His brow marred with sweat, the boy gathered his belonging slowly, trying his best to maintain the flow of his chakra inside despite his fatigue. Having successfully clothed himself, Naruto left the training ground, entering the city once again after a few minutes walk. Without warning, the blond broke into a blur above the populous streets of Konoha, taking shortcuts and forgotten alleyways to reach his home as fast and stealthily as he possibly could. The air whipped his face and roared in his ears as he ran and jumped, his feet fast and assured, never tripping once on his race. His eyes were catching the most minute detail to help him navigate his acrobatic route. The tip of his fingers and the sole of his feet were burning him as they made him aware of even the tiniest bump they encountered on his free-run, allowing him to correct his balance on instinct. The mad chase between him and the glaring sun ended abruptly as he reached his flat.

The boy took a long, greedy breath of air as he crumbled against his door, easing the flow of his power and relaxing his focus, a large grin plastered on his face, his mind slowly coming off the adrenaline high he had self-induced. Chakra was so awesome. Now he just needed to drag himself inside to eat, even though the floor looked so appealingly comfortable right now. Naruto stayed sprawled for another minute before he vanquished his exhaustion and forced himself to go inside. The flat was in the same chaotic state he had left it earlier this morning. It was not like he had someone to clean for him and his caretaker would not come before two days. His nose scrunched in disgust at the smell of his own sweat, he threw every single offending piece of clothing and other in a large basket before heading to the bathroom. He smirked at his reflection before stepping under the shower.

"Not today."

It was hours later when Naruto sighed as he perused several books and scroll strewn open on the table in front of him. He had read everything several times, his eyes surfing on the words, his mind drinking the knowledge deposited along the ink, the information printing itself deep on the folds of his brain. There was nothing more he would get out of these manuals. He understood that fuinjutsu was a somewhat lost art and mainly mastered by a now dead clan; that explained the lack of resource about the science. But it did not make it any less frustrating to only be able to skim the subject, given how interesting it sounded. Naruto sighed again. The worst was that three days from now, he would have less time to explore the archives, as the Academy was starting again. The bane of his existence. His personal place of misery. The antechamber of boredom. The blond stifled another sigh. At least, it would be his last year. He was confident he would graduate; he had everything down, be it the three jutsu or the theoretical knowledge, even his subpar taijutsu was good enough to pass. Then he would become genin and he would have access to the restricted department of the archives where treasures were waiting to be unearthed. Or dusted. Naruto smiled, his eyes glazed and looking right through the various introductory scrolls, not seeing them. He was startled back to the present by the growl of his stomach.

"Whoah there. Hungry much?" The blond chuckled while looking down at himself. Another groan of protest shook him to the bone and the boy jumped to his feed.

"Alright, what about some ramen?"

The third rumble of hunger all but confirmed his offer. "Alright, alright, no need to get all angry on me." The boy whispered, patting his belly before clearing his way out of the mess formed by the piles of books littering his floor and toward the small kitchen corner of his flat. In quick, practiced motions, the blond boy set a pot full of water and a pan on the fire, and a small stool in front of the stove. In under a minute, Naruto hacked garlic and pork meat and threw them in the pan where some spice were sizzling in oil already, while a chicken broth was simmering inside the pot. He was about to add the noodles to the pot when someone knocked on his door. Naruto took the time to plunge the somen in the boiling water and check the state of the meat before hopping off his stepladder and getting to his door. The imposing form of the Hokage was taking up the frame.

"Jiji!" The blond exclaimed with a smile, before noticing the mask-wearing ninja behind the old man and frowning lightly. "Or is it one of those time I should call you Hokage-sama?"

The old man smiled before shaking his head horizontally. "No Naruto-kun, I just came to check on you. May I enter?"

"Sure!" Naruto stepped aside to allow the Hokage entrance before blocking the frame just as fast with his body. "But he is not welcomed." The blond stated, eyeing the masked bodyguard. The Hokage turned around slowly and looked at the boy. "Why is that?"

"Because I can tell he doesn't like me. He stares at me behind his mask." The blond answered, this time returning a glare to the ninja's blank face.

"How would you-"

"My skin prickles when people look at me like that, Jijie." The blond interrupted.

The Hokage sighed and threw a glance at the ninja. Naruto saw the man start minutely before he disappeared in a great deal of displaced air. The boy tsked. "Show off. What's he afraid of anyway?" He muttered, as much for himself as for his grandfather. "It's not like you're the Hokage and super powerful." He added, eyes rolling.

Hiruzen chuckled. "True. He is a bit stupid for thinking you'd ever think of hurting me." The Hokage said in a loud voice while looking at the blond with a raised brow. "You would not, would you?"

"Of course not. And should you be talking that loud? Maskman can probably hear you."

"I know. And I want him to hear it." The old man explained to the boy with a smile and a wave of the hand, signaling the end of this particular discussion.

"Do you want ramen, Jijie? I'm cooking some right now." Naruto offered as both made their way in his living room, the mention of the food making his stomach rumble.

"Oh no, Naruto thank you. I already ate." Hiruzen declined with a smile.

"You have no idea what you're missing Jijie." The blond claimed with a grin while going back to the kitchen and his cooking. It took the blond another minute to dress his dish in the way he liked it, time Hiruzen took to dodge the mess strewn on the floor and seat himself on the second and only other chair inside the apartment. The old man observed the walls of the apartment, all covered in similar drawings of plants and trees before his eyes took in the sight of the lone blond kid working some magic in the kitchen. He sighed.

"So, Jijie, what's up?" Naruto asked, setting his food on the table and inhaling a large mouthful of noodles, jamming his own question. Hiruzen offered him a smile.

"Well, as usual, the sky I suppose."

The Hokage watched in undisguised amazement as the boy vacuumed away his ramen hanging from his mouth before swallowing everything like some hellish pit.

"Ah ah. You're funny Jijie." The blond deadpanned eventually. "No really Jijie, are you good?"

"It's not your role to inquire about old people Naruto. Old people should inquire about you."

The boy peered at his grandfather for a second before shrugging. "I don't know. You're the only one who ever asks if I'm good, so I guess I also want to know you're good too."

The Hokage smiled. "Well… Yes, Naruto, I'm good. Thank you for asking. And you? Impatient to go back to the Academy?"

Naruto returned the smile and took another mouthful of his ramen before chewing slowly, blue eyes glancing somewhere not exactly there. "Good and absolutely not." The boy eventually said, eyeing the Hokage again. "It's super boring there Jijie!" The blond paused for a moment. "Plus, they don't like me." The boy shrugged and added in a monotone. "Nobody does but you anyway."

The grimace on Hiruzen's face did not escape the boy's notice but before the old man could touch on a subject the boy was not interested in tackling, Naruto continued. "Well, maybe not everyone…" The blond said with a gaze lost in nothingness and a conflicted expression painted on his face, before he focused and kept talking, cutting short the question he knew the old man had. "Anyway, as I said, well, it's all pretty boring. I know everything they want us to learn. And they don't really teach us anything! It's all just about stuffing our brain with useless things. Urgh."

The Hokage raised an eyebrow and smiled lightly. "Really, is that so?"

"You know I have excellent memory Jijie." The blond said, gesturing to the room around him. "It's just a waste of time."

"Oh? So you know everything already?" The old man asked, both eyebrows raised and a small teasing smile tugging at his lips.

"Tch! Of course I do, believe it!" The blond exclaimed. "Everything is going so slow. I already emptied the library section we have access to!" He whined.

"Well, everyone learns and understands at their own rhythm, Naruto." His grandfather reasoned in a soothing voice.

"Yeah, but there is nothing to understand Jijie. That's the point. What we are taught… It should take like, two seconds and bam." The boy gestured, slapping his fisted right hand against his left palm. "We only need to know stuff by heart. We don't use our brain! Plus, if everything is in the books, I see no point."

"Well, what if you need the knowledge once you're away on a mission? You won't always have a library easily accessible, Naruto." The Sandaime smiled when the blond offered him an unsatisfied pout. "And I trust you should find this year interesting then, because you'll use your brain plenty, trust me."

"Really? How so?"

"Because you'll be taught strategy among other things this year. Now if you know everything, how about I test you?" The Hokage offered, with a sideways grin Naruto knew.

"Pff, fire away Jijie. I know all on everything."

"How many tenketsu in our body and their purpose?"

"Three hundred and sixty-five. And it is to distribute the chakra within and without our body."

"Ideal angle of throw for maximal distance traveled?"

"Forty-five degrees."

"The two different types of genjutsu?"

"External genjutsu are light chakra constructs that can be easily dispersed by physical contact. One example is the traditional clone technique. Internal genjutsu affect various parts of the brain of the target by altering the chakra flow. They often need contact to be layered or at the very least some kind of trigger. The target can escape by disrupting their chakra."

"The name of the five active divisions of the Kogun and their role?"

"Gauntlet in Konoha solely for the village defense, the Red Shield against Iwa, the Blazing Sword against Kumo and Kiri, the First Shodai against Suna, and the Phoenician inside Fire Country as a whole, for domestic peacekeeping, public and private mandates, and genin tutorship. Nice try but that's no problem to me Jijie." Naruto shot back with a smug tone, sending to his grandfather a challenging look. The Hokage glared back mockingly for a second before smiling and leaning in his chair.

"Very good indeed Naruto-kun. But it simply means your lean quickly. Some people need more time."

"But that's just memorizing some completely useless information! That's not learning!"

The old man shook his head. "It's not useless Naruto, never underestimate the edge knowledge can give you."

"Oh come on Jijie." Naruto exclaimed with a sigh. "When was the last time knowing about tenketsu gave you an edge?" The boy asked, not trying to hide the tease in his voice, and grinning when the Hokage sighed. "Ah! See? I'm right."

The old man smiled and chuckled. "Alright one for you, but how many for me? Some teaching at the Academy might be weird or seem strange, but know that knowing every last thing about tenketsu is essential for being a medic ninja, for example."

Naruto took a thinking pose for a moment. "But then why don't they teach that stuff to medic students only? It doesn't make sense to teach us that."

The Hokage sighed. "Do you know why the Academy was created Naruto?" The old man asked, interrupting the young blond's whining. The question silenced the boy who struck his thinking pose again.

"I don't know," admitted Naruto after a minute of chewing on the problem as well as some noodles. "To give everyone an education?"

"Yes and no, Naruto. One objective is to find children with potential. Not necessarily to be a ninja in the traditional way, but to be maybe interested in iryojutsu, in genjutsu, in strategy and so on. There are many branches in the Konoha military, Naruto, not just front-liners."

The look of comprehension dawning on his mind etched itself on the boy's face. "So… We are taught about all that so that teachers can find some potential iryo-nin?"

"Exactly."

"But… Aren't we a bit… Like, young, anyway?"

"Talent is best cultivated early Naruto."

The boy nodded as if convinced before a grimace deformed his visage. "Doesn't change the fact that it's boring. And I don't think we have any medic in our class, given we had to spend two years on it!" The blond exclaimed with an overhead throw of his arms.

The Hokage gave him a wide smile as an answer. "Why do you say that? Didn't you take it like a charm? Maybe you have potential."

Naruto returned his grandfather a dead look. "Yeah, Jijie, ah ah. Even I know you're supposed to trust your doctor. And no one would entrust anyone to me."

The Hokage visibly held a sigh and palmed his face in his right hand. "Naruto-kun," the old man soothed. "You are a brilliant boy, and I'm sure that-"

"It's ok Jijie. I know what you wanna say." The blond offered the old man a smile. "I have you, that's enough for me."

The Hokage sighed deeply but said nothing, just watching as Naruto torpedoed what was left of his ramen. "What would you rather learn then, Naruto-kun?" The old man asked suddenly as Naruto inhaled the last noodle.

The boy chewed for a second before he gulped audibly, not just from swallowing his food. "Well, I've read the books about fuinjutsu theory." The blond's voice trailed off and he looked at the old man seated in front of him with more than curiosity in his eyes.

The Hokage smiled, ignoring what was shining in the blues orbs. The similarities really were astounding. "Ah? Tell me more?"

"Well," the boy started again with a very quiet voice. "I was wondering, really, how it works. There is nothing in all those scrolls." The boy gestured at the mess precariously piled on one extremity of his table.

It was past eleven when the Hokage ended the conversation, reminding Naruto that, even if he didn't have school tomorrow, it was no reason to go to bed this late, and that, in all honesty, they had already crossed the boundaries of what was reasonable for a boy his age. As Naruto expected, as soon as the Hokage exited his door, there was a great deal of displaced air, and the masked ninja appeared again at the old man's side. The blond accompanied his grandfather until the end of the external gangway of the second floor. Naruto hugged the old man, making the masked man tense visibly, a fact the boy answered by showing the ninja his tongue.

"Night Jijie. You visit back in a week?" The blond asked, his voice barely a whisper in the cold evening air.

The Hokage squeezed him firmly. "Yes my boy. In a week, to see how the new year is treating you. But you know not to be a stranger and come to my office, even if you don't need anything, right?" He asked, engulfing the boy in his arms.

"I know Jijie. It's just… I like it when you're here."

"And I like it too. Be good Naruto, alright?"

"Promise Jijie." The boy answered, giving the old man a peck on the cheek. The Hokage smiled and kissed the blond's forehead.

"Night Naruto-kun. Sweet dreams."

From the second story of his complex, Naruto watched as the two figures disappeared in the wobbling street lighting. Disappointment shone in the blue eyes and the boy sighed, trying to keep his thoughts away from the discussion he just had with the Hokage and the one thing the old man had refused to touch. He kept on staring long after his grandfather had disappeared from view, his gaze lost into nothingness, before finally turning back to his flat. Perhaps he was not straightforward enough? Perhaps the old man had not seen the hint?

Naruto squashed the train of reflection and then proceeded to shake his head ruefully at the thought he had every single time he was in the gangway; the thought of the five deserted apartments next to the one he was living in, just so people would not have to be near him. And his grandfather wanted him to find friends. A crooked smile made his way to his lips; talk about impossible. It was kind of hurtful. But one small part of the boy's brain also considered it flat stupid. Naruto stepped through the door in his small living quarters. It was quite a luxurious place for a lone eleven years old, with a bedroom, a kitchen combined with a living room, and a bathroom. And the best part was that Konoha was paying for it. Which was a relief because, as far as Naruto knew, he had no money other than the small sum the Hokage gifted him every month. He wasn't even sure if this pocket money was not coming directly from the old man's personal treasure. The boy sighed before his fist clenched. He would become a ninja and give the money back to the old man, ryo for ryo. Naruto relaxed his hands before he went to wash his face. Tomorrow, he would train and learn, like he had done for the past five years. Tomorrow, he would grow closer to his dream. For that, he needed all of his energy and as such, would go to bed early.

Monday came quickly, and with it, the first classes at the Academy. For the last year, thought Naruto as he made his way toward the grey, concrete building, his satchel weighing on his shoulder with all its book fullness. He had received the books on Saturday, courtesy of the Hokage, to make sure no one tried to deprive him of the manuals like it had been the case during the first two years. Walking casually, he glanced without seeing them at the civilians going about their life, unimportant faces scowling in disgust and hate at his mere presence. He could have disappeared, could have made his way to the Academy invisible to them. He had the skill to do so, he knew it. But, dressed in one ugly ass neon orange garment, he also knew he was one disagreeable, detestable eyesore. Like an itch the villagers all wanted to scratch but were forbidden to. And Naruto enjoyed that. It wasn't much, the more objective side of his brain had supplied to him more than once that it was probably petty, but he enjoyed it. Because he knew it made every last one of the villagers seeing him uncomfortable. He could not do much more, in the first place because he had given his word to his grandfather, and that breaking it would not feel right. But maybe he could goad them into doing something stupid, and then all the bets and promises would be off. But above all, if he ever decided to go to the Academy secretly, he knew it would feel like a loss. And he would certainly never grant any kind of victory to the village, not without fighting.

So the boy fought, in his own way, as he ignored the glares the villager were levying on him. He was careful to dodge the usual man who regularly tried to trip him, one hundred and fifty meters away from the school grounds. The blond knew the facial features of his assailant by heart now, as it was always the same dumb person at the same spot. Five years and the desperate humanoid still tried. One day, he would probably accidentally stab this particular man with a kunai, in the leg, right on the artery. The cut would be too deep to be healed and the poor man would die from blood loss before iryo nin could work their jutsu on him. A very unfortunate incident all in all and Naruto would plead innocence. The boy smiled at the silly thought before dismissing it with a head shake. He would need to read about laws before, to know if it was even feasible. The blond shook his head again. No, he had promised the Hokage, above and beyond reproaches. Killing a man would certainly not follow the guideline, especially while he was still officially a civilian. Yet if everything went normally, he would not stay a civilian for long.

Naruto reached the gates a minute after, checked he was still in the same old classroom, found his way in the labyrinth of the Academy grounds, and entered the small amphitheater. Soon the class filled with annoying children and annoying chatter. Naruto was, as per usual, seated alone in the back of the class. His hand was mindlessly doodling something on an open notebook. The other children, as per usual, were discussing among themselves, ignoring him copiously. The blond's eyes were lost, looking at nothing through the slightly foggy window. What was not usual in this morning of October, was that whoever their sensei was supposed to be had not arrived yet. For a first day, it was weird, even if the blond was not especially impatient about beginning some more boring lectures. Actually, Naruto was starting to wonder if the class was going to happen at all, given that the only reason a ninja would ever be late was sickness, which was something incredibly rare for shinobi. Not that the blond had two ryo to give about the health of the one he would have to call sensei for a year, he could not have cared less if someone suddenly barged in and announced his death.

"Hello class! Please sit down." A voice rang and recalled Naruto back to reality with a start. For a second, the blond panicked lightly about the strange happenstance but quickly dismissed it. He had wished for people's death more than once, he would know if he had that kind of power. Naruto reported his focus on the man who had just entered. Brown hair, brown eyes, tanned skin, and the general word would have been common were it not for the scar slashing horizontally through the teacher's entire face, just above his nose. "My name is Umino Iruka, and I will be the one teaching this class for this year." The now identified Iruka explained as whispers began to slitter in the class.

A sway of strawberry hair caught Naruto's eyes and he watched as a girl seated on the first rank rose her hand as high as she could.

"Yes, miss?"

"What happened to Kenji-sensei?"

"For personal reason, Kenji-san decided to ask for a transfer from the Phoenician, a request which was granted."

The man threw a sweeping glance at the assembled children. Naruto looked as Umino's eyes found his and hardened. The blond threw him his harshest glare in return before turning his head down to his desk. Naruto sighed and returned to his doodling; apparently, this teacher would be just like all the previous ones.

"Any other question?" The man asked, waiting for a second before turning his back to the silent class and chalking some words on the blackboard. "My office will be one one two, you can find me here if you have questions about what we study in class. He is not here today, but I'll also be helped by Miki Mizuki. The schedule for the class will stay the same as the previous year, from eight to seventeen, with an hour-long lunch-break. Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be the clan break. Of course, those of you not coming from ninja clan are welcome here and strongly encouraged to come to pursue training of all kind, just like always. We teachers will be here to assist." Turning back toward the children, the man smiled. "Let's start, shall we?"

The class nodded, knowing full well it was not a question and sat, waiting for the teacher to deliver his knowledge.

"Now, who among you know how to play shogi?"

Ice blue bore into the tinted surface of sunglasses. There was no time to be lost as the bell which would announce the end of all war was ready to ring. The black lance moved just two square ahead and immediately promoted, effectively trapping the adverse king's escape. A hand hovered above the board, delicately touching a piece before retracting into the large sleeve of a grey coat.

"It seems like it is my loss, Uzumaki-san." The young heir of the entomologist clan congratulated, his defeat keeping his usual speech pattern to show.

"It was a nice game, Aburame-san." Naruto offered politely in return, his lips forcefully stretched in a thin smile. It was polite but true nonetheless. The game had been tense until the very last minute, Shino Aburame proving to be an extremely shrewd and calculating opponent, finding ways to delay his ultimate demise until the very end. The dark haired boy had fallen into Naruto's trap twenty-five moves into the game but had managed to nearly turn the table on the blond and had ultimately imposed a costly victory to the blue-eyed boy and a long-winded, three hundred moves worth match. Naruto's thoughts were broken by the extended hand of Shino crossing the board. The blond stared, inexpressive, for a second and shook it slightly and hesitantly.

"I hope we play again Uzumaki-san. Why? Because I also enjoyed the game." The glasses wearing boy declared, his usual way of wording things returning.

"I am sure we will have the occasion," Naruto answered, his skin crawling with a weird feeling.

It was the second the bell chose to ring eleven thirty and just as predictable as the movement of the gears of a well-oiled clock, the ritual of students rushing out to escape the stuffy classroom played out. Naruto and Shino were both left in the settling dust of the stampede.

"It was a nice game," drawled a voice from beside them, startling them both ever so slightly. Sprawled nearby, his chin squished against a desk, the brown eyes under the pineapple haircut riveted onto them, was unmistakably a Nara boy.

"Thank you, Nara-san."

"Shikamaru, Shino. Being called Nara-san is way too troublesome." The boy lifted his body like it was some dislocated puppet and dragged it, by the force of his will, or so it seemed to Naruto, to the classroom door. "I hope we get to play too." The boy bore his gaze in Naruto's and the blond felt himself swallow a strange lump. With a wave of his hand, the Nara disappeared. "See ya two after lunch."

Naruto reeled his eyes from the door-frame back to Shino's sunglasses and quirked an eyebrow, a trickle of cold sweat rolling agonizingly slow down his temple.

"Nara-san is quite… Energy efficient, let us say." The Aburame boy answered.

"So it seems." The blond nodded. "Well, Aburame-san, I'm off to lunch." The boy finished, exiting the room with the swaying gait of a drunk man.

Naruto settled down against his favorite tree, his chest heaving like the bellows of a great forge. The blond took a minute to calm his breath before he tried to analyze the reason for his discomfort. It was not the first time he had felt like this. It would always begin the same way, with either Shikamaru or Shino talking to him. Or even Hinata sometimes, even if it was rarer coming from the overly shy bluette princess. Either one of the three would talk to him and he would feel like he was drowning. He had long since identified that. The first time, some two years ago or so, had been so bad he had nearly fainted. He knew the trigger to his discomfort yet he could not tell what was the cause. Why, by the Will of Fire, did he feel like this? Absently opening a lunch box his caretaker had made for him, the blond let his thoughts roam freely in an attempt to pierce the mystery of the awkwardness awakened without fail by his three schoolmates. His chopsticks carried slowly and automatically some food to his mouth while the boy chewed on both his lunch and the old question.

Naruto had more or less forgotten the feeling during the month of the summer vacation, being apart from the three causes of his panic. He was not prepared for it to return like this on the very first day of his last year. The blond replayed the few words spoken at the end of their furious shogi showdown. Over and over again he saw his short conversation with his two classmates, the unknown feeling slithering back to crush his chest like some merciless boa. Over and over again, he coldly analyzed what had been said. Over and over he dredged up older interactions he had had with the trio. Yet, after an hour, and as the bell rang to signify the end of the lunch break, he was still at a loss. Naruto sighed as he slowly rose to his feet. Why was it so complicated? Save the Hokage, a few people would glance at him in indifference at best and literally everyone else would glare at him in hatred at worse. So why was it that when it came to those three, their eyes were void of anything he was used to and full of something he could not understand? The blond slapped his cheeks to clear his muddled thoughts and walked toward the school building.

"Alright everyone," started Iruka with a warm smile shining at the class. "First, congratulation on those who won this morning against their opponent. For those who lost, don't worry and remember to play regularly. Practice makes master after all." The man had a sweeping glance on the class before his smile disappeared and his features set themselves in seriousness. "This year is your last year. As such, we will work on every aspect of the shinobi arts you ever worked on since you set foot here. We will add to that strategic planning and resolution, as well as negotiation with everything it entails. The year will be loaded and time waits for no one, so I expect seriousness from all of you. The final genin examination will be a breather if you work diligently." The chunin almost glared at the gathered pre-teens for a second before his eyes softened. "I do hope we will have a fruitful year together." The man added in a mellow voice before his tone became dry and snappy. "Now I want everyone to open their manual titled The Art of Negotiation on page five."

Naruto fished the imposing leather backed book from his satchel, his fingers playing a second with the toad head serving as the button, and opened the work on page five.

"Basic psychology and its use in conflict resolution." The blond silently read, his eyes widening minutely and glancing over the page. It was a basic summary of the learning unit, and Naruto's interest was instantly nudged awake when he read words and morsels of sentences such as "body language deciphering", "reverse psychology" or even "hostage situation". Maybe he would indeed actually learn something this year.

One day turned to two, two turned to three and soon it was Sunday and Naruto did not have to wake up to the dizzying sound of his alarm, the seventh day being a day of quiet and rest. The still quite warm sun rays of the mid-autumn shone brightly upon Naruto's head, his blond locks taking on a golden hue. The perspiring, shivering boy groaned almost painfully, a strange sound of distress escaping his throat for a second before turning under his damp cover and subtracting his face to the light. Less than twenty minutes passed before the unstoppable motion of the world and the celestial bodies made it so that light shone once again on the sleeping boy's face. Naruto groaned in the same fashion but this time, the boy made no move to fight the inevitable, his breathing labored and his eyes rolling left and right at a fever-induced speed under his lids. A minute passed, a choir of bird celebrating the rising sun and the wet morning, before the blond suddenly jumped out of his bed, a mix between a yawn and a weird, strangled cry of fearful protest escaping his lips as the boy righted himself after nearly tripping on the cover he had thrown haphazardly.

His shoulders knotted in angst and all four members tensed like springs, Naruto looked around him blearily for a second before his eyes focused on his bed and the drenched sheets. The boy sighed. It meant he had had the dream again. He had it more and more often nowadays and he had no idea why. He couldn't even remember it precisely; it was a muddy blur of alien images in his confused mind. The only thing he knew was that he had had fewer nightmares this summer. They had come back to haunt him, ever-changing and gluing him in somber fantasies, plaguing his sleep, absorbing his life like insubstantial leeches, leaving behind only a bitter taste pervading his mouth, a sickly sheen of sweat marring his skin and thoughts of death dripping from his brain.

Naruto shook his head vigorously to chase the last remnants of his night, a dread not unlike the web of a spider in its sticky quality. The familiar anger was bubbling in his chest as usual when he had the dream. The boy breathed deeply to even the rhythm of his heart and folded his legs under him to sit in a lotus position. The embers of his rage cooled rapidly and Naruto knew the nightmare had not been about It. Not really. His anger would not have diminished so quickly had it been the case. When he opened his eyes for the second time of the day, the boy realized he had meditated for half an hour.

"Time for some light work-out I guess."

The blond immediately threw on some sweatshirt and pants and found himself outside quickly. The boy basked a moment in the warmth of the sun before he began his usual, Sunday morning jog. Would follow some strength, speed and endurance building exercises, only to finish on some more chakra control routine, but nothing as intense or prolonged as what he would do during the week proper.

Hot water splashed on Naruto, washing the grim, fatigue and wear of his training away from his skin, muscles, and bones. The bathroom soon was drowned in fog: if Naruto ever admitted to a sin, it was his love for long showers.

A meal eventually having found its way to his stomach, Naruto pondered what to do with his day. Sunday was rest and relaxation. He knew he had until early evening until the Hokage would come to visit him, so the whole afternoon was free for him to do what he wanted. The blond eyed the small bookcase that was standing regally in the corner of his room, hesitated on the many flowers blossoming in the pots decorating his flat before he threw a glance at his unfinished sketchbook. The air had been a bit chilly during his run earlier this morning so his choice was quickly made.

A minute later, tucked under a red plaid, Naruto was reading. His good, old, worn out edition of the "Tales of the Kingdoms of Guangbai and Mohuhei" was open in his hands and the blond had a nostalgic smile as he read the slightly yellowish particular book had been his first ever companion after playing alone with wooden toys had become stale.

Relaxed by the fragrance of the blooming flowers of a begonia set on a nightstand behind his head, and comfortable in his couch, Naruto was seemingly entranced; his blue eyes were racing along the printed words of the book. Yet soon, he groaned as he read the same line for the third time. He could not focus on anything he read. Despite the pleasant perfume of citrus and orange blossom of the begonia, the stories he so liked seemed to escape his grasp. Stories about brave battling ninja, wicked warring daimyo and breathtakingly beautiful princesses. Stories about gods fighting to save Earth. Stories about young upstarts conquering a throne, a crown, and a queen. Nothing could catch his attention as a perplexing question was whirling in the blue of his eyes. Sighing, the boy ended his reading, his azure orbs staring at the printed words without seeing them, his thoughts on a matter miles away from literature.

* * *

"It was a nice game Naruto." Shikamaru Nara said, offering his extended hand to the blond across the shogi board. The blond shook it lightly and quickly withdrawn his perspiring hand.

"Yes, it was, Nara-san."

"It's Shikamaru, Naruto. Shi-ka-ma-ru." The brown haired incarnation of laziness sighed. "Please?" The young boy asked with an attempted puppy look, that the boy proved incapable of accomplishing entirely. Naruto wanted to laugh, or at least giggle, but it felt like a kunai was stuck through his throat. The blond tried to swallow to humidify his dry mouth but it was in vain.

"Ah… Yes… Of course," Naruto finally successfully gulped down whatever was clogging his throat with a weird head bob. "Shikamaru. Congratulation on winning."

"Well," the brown-haired Nara eyed Naruto carefully and the blond had to stop himself from fidgeting. "I play often with my dad and he is very good. I guess I picked some of his tricks."

Naruto set his jaw firmly and refused to flinch. He refused to acknowledge the pit that had just opened somewhere above his stomach and below his lungs. He refused to move a hand to his chest, where he would undoubtedly find blood gushing out of a hole.

"It would make sense." The blond answered dryly.

"Nonetheless, you are a tough opponent. I'm not certain I will win out next game."

Naruto's lips thinned in a line. "That is giving me much credit, Nar- Shikamaru."

"Not really." The ghost of a smile appeared on the Nara's lips. "You're troublesome ya know? I can't be lazy during our games."

The claim was heard by the whole class and Naruto felt twenty-nine pairs of eyes set on him. Shikamaru Nara had proven, in three days and since Monday, that he was the undisputed chief as far as shogi was in play. He had wiped the floor, so to speak, with everyone in the class, even their teacher. Admitting someone had made him break a sweat was something no one had thought to hear. Admitting Naruto was this someone was yet something else. The blond hesitated, the urge to disappear made even stronger by the sudden attention, until a familiar coldness swept along his spine, a familiar prickle made his skin itch, and familiar words hit his ears.

"Pff, as if he could match you, Shikamaru."

The incomprehensible gazes turned to disdainful glares and the silence turned to scornful insults.

"Yeah, don't say stupid thing Shikamaru."

Naruto felt his tension leave him as the familiarity of the situation washed over him. This, he knew how to handle. The anger of his youth had turned to disdain and had reinforced the walls of his pride. He was confident, their glares and insults could not hurt him. The blond turned to eye the Nara boy only for everything to crumble. Shikamaru was looking at him, and in the brown eyes of the clan heir, there was nothing Naruto could comprehend. It was at this moment the bell rang, freeing him from his torment.

* * *

The sun fell lower and lower westward and the sky was a painting of purple and orange when the sound of his stomach protesting loudly broke Naruto out of his recollection. The boy stood and stretched with a groan escaping his lips before he shook his head in an attempt to stop thinking. Satisfied, the boy took the book that had escaped his hands to put it in the bookcase again. With a sweeping glance, Naruto looked at his flat before he went and grabbed his satchel. Going back to his ruined couch, the started playing with the button closing the bag. The head of the button fastening the leather case was in the shape of a toad.

It was yet another mysterious present he had recently received, this one coming along a wallet also in the shape of an amphibian. Naruto was not against receiving presents, especially useful ones such as those. But he did feel uncomfortable not knowing who the sender was, as the Hokage had assured him he was in no way, shape, or form, responsible for the gifts. The old man had also said not to hesitate and use the objects. Answers would come in time, the one he called Jijie had said. The running theme, and maybe gag, between all the presents, at least identified the one responsible as one unique person. Naruto wondered for a second if he looked like a toad but banished the thought. His whisker-like marks on the cheek and his already relatively angular face gave him the appearance of a cat more than anything else. His growling stomach returned him to the present.

"Yeah, yeah."

Naruto did not have the help of his caretaker on Sunday. It was an already old arrangement, to help him grow more and more independent from the woman. After all, she would stop coming once he graduated. It meant he needed to be able to do a few things on his own, like cooking, cleaning the flat, doing his laundry and so on. So on Sunday, he was responsible for feeding himself. Throwing a cursory glance at the content of his fridge, Naruto decided on a stir-fry and immediately began working on it.

A few minutes later, the blond was sitting in front of a fuming serving of beef meat, fried vegetables of various color and potatoes and ready to dig in when he heard a knock on his door. Naruto grinned. The Hokage certainly had a gift to come right on time for dinner. The blond trod to his entrance and in the door frame was standing his grandfather.

"Good evening Hokage-sama," Naruto said with a small smile, gesturing the old man to enter, not paying attention to the masked man escorting the Hokage, as the ninja made no movement to enter his flat.

The old Sarutobi smiled. "Good evening, Uzumaki-san. How are you?"

The smile on Naruto's face faltered for a second before it settled back on his lips. "Good," he answered quietly in a slightly raspy voice before clearing his throat. "Good," the blond repeated firmly. "Do you wish something to eat?"

"I'd gladly take you up on that offer Uzumaki-san." The old ruler looked at the younger blond with seriousness and spoke with a small inclination of his head. "If you have enough of course."

"I always make two servings when you come Hokage-sama," Naruto said with honey coating his words. "It is my honor to be your host."

A grin graced the lips of the Hokage. "I'm greatly honored to be your guest."

"Enough, the food will go cold." Naruto ended their little game with a shake of his head and led the old ninja to his living-and-dining-room, where he promptly set up another plate of food for the Hokage along with a pair of chopstick.

"Itadakimasu." The old man said quietly in his low voice, before allowing himself to try some of his food. The perfectly cooked and seasoned beef melting on his tongue almost made him regret Naruto was not learning to be a chef rather than a ninja. Almost.

The pair ate in silence, only the clicking of chopsticks moving back and forth disturbing the quiet. Soon enough, Hiruzen regretfully saw his plate emptied of all the wonderful food it had contained. The old man had eaten with gusto, as fast as the younger blond seated across from him. Crossing his chopstick on top of his dish, Hiruzen sat comfortably against the back of his seat.

"So Naruto." The Hokage took a deep breath as he crossed his fingers in front of him. "How was this first week? I'm curious."

He saw a smile grace Naruto's lips before it faltered in one ugly grimace, but the second after, the boy's features were smooth and neutral.

"It's going well Jijie. You were right, I feel like we will learn plenty of interesting stuff."

 **A/N: Well. This chapter was complicated. I had two choices. I could either write about Naruto's entire time in the Academy, or I could write about just his last year. If I did the entirety of the Academy cycle, I know it would not have been interesting. Yet, with this time skip, I cannot help but feel like I've sort of cheated. No good solution. Anyway, thank you all for the reviews you left on chapter 1 and for the ones you doubtlessly will leave on chapter 2. ;-)**

 **P.S: FYI, I edited chapter 1 slightly, and will edit this chapter 2 after a few days, once the inconsistencies and grammatical atrocities reveal themselves to me. This will happen every chapter, but rest assured, it will only be little tweaks to close minor plot holes.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Ah ah, it's good to see you, citizens! ... No? You all never played a TES game? Your loss. I guess it's here that I announce that I still don't own anything related to Naruto. It's also here I thank my Beta, the fantastic, the unique, the incredible Bluepencils12. Without Blue, this chapter wouldn't be half as good.**

The figure was still, one hand behind its back, the other extended toward him, watching him like he had seen cat watch birds. With the countenance of a predator, the blond-haired silhouette leered at him with its empty orbs. A deadly pale finger neared his cheek and the touch, neither cold nor warm, made him shudder. The wax-like flesh scraped against his face and the sensation forced his stomach to lurch. Kept wide open by a will that was not his own, his eyes darted left, right, down and up, looking for a way out, searching feverishly for a possibility to escape. But there was to be no reprise from his torment, and the figure just smiled, smiled the most disgusting smile, and forced him to behold it. It was a hollow, fake smile that disguised nothing but venom and hate. It was the smile the villagers had in his presence when the old man was with him. The silhouette kept smiling, and slowly, the hand resting on his cheek slid down, and five viscous fingers ensnared his neck. The blond hair swayed, and from the mouth, a cascade of laughter echoed, like gravel rubbed against an open wound. The figure neared him, and the fingers squeezed, hard, merciless, they squeezed to rob him from his breath, and the hollow smile morphed to a sneer of utter disgust. The soil ruptured under his weight, and his body began to sink. Black water, thicker than blood, engulfed his legs, and the fingers were still crushing his throat. Then, from behind its back, the hidden hand flashed, and his eyes drowned in tears widened as a crude kitchen knife tore through his chest, right where his panic-stricken heart was haphazardly beating. Blood escaped, a gushing flow, like from a fountain, and the figure snarled and pushed, pushed him deeper in the sea of black, where his blood was melding with the tar.

"We hate you." The figure whispered in a strained, breathless voice, and with one last push, it drowned him completely in his own blood.

A narrow, weary bed vomited the body of a blond boy, and an anguished cry made the window vibrate by its intensity. The blond threw away the usual mess of cover, his breath ragged, his skin sweaty, his face distorted in panic. With the speed of a hare flushed out by mastiffs, the boy scrambled toward his dresser and fumbled for a second with a drawer on the bottom left of the piece of furniture. His hands finally found what he was looking for in the case and Naruto stumbled back on his posterior, gripping like a lifeline a crumpled letter. The delicate scent of flowers hit his nose, and the remnant of the rot was dispelled. The blond took a deep breath and his heart calmed, soothed by the perfume of lilac.

His blue eyes roamed over the letter, taking in the words written on the high-quality rice paper. Just like every morning for three weeks, the blond tried to pierce the secret of the perfect, if rigid and genderless, calligraphy, willing the words to reveal the identity of the sender. Just like every morning for three weeks, it was to no avail. The unsigned letter kept its secret better than the most secure safe. Naruto inhaled deeply, and again, the diminishing fragrance of flowers soothed him. Once again, his blue eyes found themselves at the start of the message.

"Naruto, I wish you a very happy birthday," whispered the blond.

The boy felt a great deal of pain as his chest seemingly expended to contain the turmoil raging inside. He resisted at the last second the impulse to tear the paper apart and disperse the remnants to the wind in a bout of anger that had become familiar for three weeks. Naruto swallowed desperately as his throat felt sore and encumbered. With trembling hands, the boy evened out once again the paper he had nearly reduced to shred a second ago. When he resumed his read, his vision was blurry.

"I hope your day is filled with joy and pleasant surprises, as you deserve them more than any other." The boy clenched his jaw and his body vibrated once. Once again, the letter nearly gave in under his crispated fingers, but he relaxed just in time.

"It shames me that I do not possess the courage to say it to you personally, but please, think no less of my wishes, for they are sincere." His breath hitched, as he knew what was coming next. The blond marshaled all his fury, all his resentment, all the anger simmering somewhere deep down. He draped himself in it, tailored himself an armor of white-hot rage and braced, braced for what he knew was coming. His ice-cold orbs looked down the letter once more.

"I love you."

Something gave inside the blond boy, something that, for three weeks, kept on being broken then repaired then broken again. Tears streamed silently down his face, his blue eyes blind now, the clouds of fury gone from the azure. A sob racked his body but Naruto held firmly and cried in silence. The blond fell on his back, the letter forgotten, only its last three words circling again and again in his head like a shout echoing in a large cave. It was a painful answer to desires he did not allow himself to feel. It was a painful answer to what his nightmares dredged up from the dark well of his mind. It was a painful answer to a question he had ceased to ask. Naruto tried and clenched his fist but he couldn't muster any anger. He had nothing to oppose this. When the villagers looked at him funny and insulted him in whispers, he could glare daggers and hurl venomous words at them. The mistreatment, he could endure. The scorn, the hate, the indifference, he could endure. The bullying, the insults, the stupidity of the other kids he could endure. He had sworn that to his grandfather, long ago.

But against those three words, he was powerless. He had no control.

It took Naruto several minutes to regain his bearing. The blond wiped his face on his cover before he gave a half-hearted glare to the letter. Once again, he felt the temptation to tear it apart, and once again, something else stayed his hand. Slowly, almost religiously, the boy folded the letter and deposited it in the drawer. When the wooden case closed, the blond exhaled the breath he was holding. Shaky legs carried him to his bathroom, where his mirror reflected a sorry image of himself.

"You are pathetic."

The blond felt the familiar burn of anger returning, coursing in his veins, dictating the rate of his heartbeat. A snarl answered the mirror, and Naruto bolted out of his apartment less than a minute later, hastily dressed and ready to mangle something to dust.

The blond and orange blur sped through the barely awake streets of Konoha, the wet dawn of early November keeping most people under the yoke of sleep. The only signs of activity were bakers, servants, and the occasional drunkard forgotten by the night. It was also at this hour that the less savory people of Konoha returned home after a night of less than legal business. It was a funny thing to know that despite living in a village that groomed soldiers in part specialized in stealth operations, some people still risked their luck at thievery. If the rumors were to be believed, it was by order of the Hokage himself that those cat burglars were even allowed to roam. The best were then supposedly recruited by either the ANBU or the GOMBU. A load of nonsense, in Naruto's opinion. The police force had bigger fish to fry outside of Konoha proper and simply allowed the shady business to take place. As long as it did not go as far as planned murder, which, as far as Naruto knew, hadn't happened in years.

The blond jumped and flew past the few passersby, who ignored him copiously, nose down in their clothes, much more preoccupied with conserving body warmth than with the orange missile. The month of October had fled and disappeared somewhere unknown, and Fire Country's long summer had finally surrendered to a merciful winter. The nights were longer and the air colder. Apart from the stubborn firs crowning the Hokage mountain, the hardwoods residing lower in the Naka valley had finished shedding their leaves and were ready to, ironically, face the cold season naked. The soil everywhere was blackened by the decomposing leaves, worked and overturned by a swarm of bug-sized life forms, and was exuding the peculiar humid scent that the earth has in autumn. Flocks of various feathers were constantly flying southward, toward Tea Country and further, chasing the warmth that had decided to switch hemisphere. But the seasonal change had little impact on Konohagakure's life and activity, and today as any other day, the citizens of the ninja village would be as busy as ever, as soon as the sun would rise from behind Mount Hokage. The ochre mines were dishing out their richly colored earth, parcels of wood were negotiated with shipowners from the coast for the spring cut, the flow of silk from Tea Country had stopped but it was only for wool from the countries of Rice and Snow to invade the marketplace, whereas the spices from the west had, just as always, their place of choice in the middle of the giant Nidaime's Square, where all of Konoha's commerce took place.

Naruto's run took him down a practiced road and stopped in front of the Academy. The blond entered the deserted precinct, the hour still too early for anyone to be there, save maybe the janitor. Today was the second of November, and it was a Friday, one of the three homeschool days given to the clans. Children belonging to a clan would not attend, busy studying their ancestors' techniques, history, and past glory. It meant the numbers of students would basically be cut in half for the day. During the second half of the week, only children not supported by a clan were supposed to come to the Academy for self-study, with the possibility to work in groups supervised by one of the two titular teachers. Naruto had never been really welcomed in those groups. He had never been expressly forbidden to join, but the teachers mainly ignored him and the aggressivity of the other children had not helped the matter. After a while, he had just ceased completely to try and join, back in his second year at the Academy. The blond worked alone on subjects he felt he actually needed to work on, like bujutsu or ninjutsu. The results were mitigated, to say the least. He had excellent forms and was physically fit, more than any of his classmate probably, but sparring found him lacking. He had decent chakra control, considering the sheer amount he had, but the Big Three weren't all mastered yet and he had not much else to show. He had a day of rest on Thursday, where he would tone down the routine and work on the mandatory personal project, but he had, for some reason, foolishly chosen fuinjutsu, who no one understood save the Hokage. The boy sighed. Following the advice of his grandfather, he had made the most of the situation, and today, it was suiting him fine anyway. Naruto made way toward one of the training grounds, where a free training dummy was waiting for him. The wooden target had better be ready.

Relentlessly, Naruto was attacking the training dummy. The blond had been martyring the target for hours already. He had distractedly heard people come in but had paid it no heed. The boy had kept this entire focus on his enemy of the day. It was an elaborate wooden construct, with arms and pivots, capable of reacting, in a way, to the strikes the boy was layering on it. By simply transferring the momentum behind each hit, the arms were swinging wildly and Naruto had to either dodge or counter-attack. It was less ideal than a live sparring partner but better than a simple punching bag. Trickling minute, controlled amount of chakra to his body, the blond was working his muscles hard, the life energy only enough to repair the tear and heal the soreness. His breathing steady, floating on his legs like on springs, Naruto rained a flurry of straights, jabs, hooks and other niceties on the man of wood, using his elbows, knees, and feet when his fists were not enough. The exercise was lackluster nowadays, as Naruto knew the possible moves of the puppet by heart and could probably have done the training eyes closed, but it had the advantage to distract his mind from thoughts either uncomfortable or puzzling, and sometimes both. The nightmare. The letter. The continued, undecipherable behavior of Shikamaru Nara and Shino Aburame. Thinking about his two classmates was a perilous activity that only ever brought a headache and sickness, and if Naruto had to make an enemy of the wooden dummy to avoid considering complicated problems, then the wood dummy would become his arch nemesis. It was a good distraction, from the unasked questions, the unanswered questions, and from the person observing him.

Iruka Umino looked on discretely, not so carefully hidden from the genin hopeful's view and sense. The blond abomination was currently mauling an innocent piece of training equipment, so hard that the chunin teacher could swear bits of wood were flying off the main body. The brown-haired man scowled. The demon kid was destroying school equipment. That would be a perfect motive for a complaint if it was not so patently training. A part of Iruka's mind considered filling a report anyway, but warping the truth was not something the Hokage was fond of, particularly when it came to the jinchuriki. It was understandable: their leader was making sure that the weapon was not impeded too much in its development. It was not something Iruka liked, but ninjas weren't asked to like each and every decision taken by their Hokage. And it certainly went against Iruka's firmest beliefs to lie to his Hokage anyway. At least the teaching staff was not forced to assist the devil's spawn too much, as it was smart enough to follow class without asking questions, and preferred to work alone during the three days of clan break. Its presence was tolerable. The teacher's thought drifted to his colleague and friend, Mizuki, who was currently inside with a small group of students, teaching them more about strategy. Yet another thing the demon was good at. Iruka had been forced to come to the conclusion after an unfortunate incident involving twenty-seven games being played simultaneously, one hour, and a rather humiliating result. The man could still remember the look of utter shock on the boy's face at the begrudging admission as if the blond had never received a compliment in life. Iruka scowled. It was not a boy. It was a demon, and he would not be fooled by his appearance, whatever the Hokage could say. Satisfied by his strengthened resolve, Iruka dove back to his thoughts. Carried further by the devilish and deadly dance performed by the monster in human form and the twacks of its body parts impacting the dummy, the brown-haired man lost himself in contemplation, wondering what kind of ramen he should order on his next visit to Ichiraku.

"His forms are good. The puppet exercise is useless to him." The teacher thought absentmindedly before a snarl painted itself on his face and he broke from the dangerous train of reflection. There was no way he would go out of his way to help it. Not him. It. He wouldn't help the demon. He wouldn't help the thing that had destroyed his childhood. The thing that had killed his parents. No way in hell.

* * *

In a large sunroom comfortably furnished with large pillows of various size, Shikamaru Nara sighed as his father, Konoha First Strategist, put him in checkmate. The older man considered the younger boy carefully for a minute.

"What's wrong, Shikamaru? I just won three games in a row in less than thirty moves." The voice of Shikaku Nara was deep, his diction slow and level, with the minutest amount of concern in the last part of his statement. "It is not normal nowadays."

The pineapple-haired boy eyed his equally pineapple-haired opponent, and sighed again, drawing a mildly alarmed gaze from his father. The man was not quite worried yet, as he was not sure it was worth the effort, but he was slowly gearing up for the necessity to become so. Sighing two times in a row like this was after all, extremely troublesome, and not the usual demeanor from his son.

The young Nara lowered his gaze for a second as if searching for words in the wooden planks making up the floor before his eyes focused once again on the man in front of him. "It's troublesome, father." Shikamaru eventually let out.

Immediately, the boy could see the well-oiled gears inside the First Strategist's head begin to turn. Shikamaru suddenly saw his father pale for the fraction of a second, but before he could be sure it had happened, the older man's face set itself once more in its usual, eternally vaguely interested expression.

"And what confuses you?"

"A boy."

Again, Shikamaru swore he saw his father's face blanch imperceptibly, but again, it was gone after a blink.

"How so?" The Nara boy noticed the First Strategist's voice had a prudent undertone to it. Shikamaru decided it was irrelevant yet.

"There is something… Troublesome, about him." The words had no other effects than causing the corners of Shikaku Nara's eyes to tighten ever so slightly.

"Describe troublesome."

Shikamaru gulped. "He is good, at pretty much everything. Yet he has nothing others talented like him receive."

"And that would be?"

"Praise, acknowledgment, tutoring." The Nara boy hesitated a second before speaking the last word he wanted to add. "Friendship." It felt like spewing a mouthful of bile and poison. Shikamaru did not know why, but his chest felt very tight, and his throat constricted, and he was sure it was somehow guilt griping at his insides. He did not notice the passing look of relief his father sported for a whole second.

"Is that so now?"

"I believe my… Reading of the situation is correct." Shikamaru once again marked a pause. "I talked with Aburame Shino, who noticed the same thing."

"And… What is the name of this boy?"

The Nara boy frowned slightly at his father's hesitant drawl. "It's irrelevant right?" The Nara boy asked in a whisper. "I mean, what could have he done to be treated like that?"

* * *

Aburame Miki observed her oldest son as he sat in front of her. She smiled at the sight of a younger, smaller version of her husband. The smile drained from her face as she reminded herself how Shino had solicited her help.

"Mother, I wish your insight regarding a certain matter." That was all her boy had said. His voice had been as level as it ever was, containing neither heat nor cold, perfectly modulated to betray no emotion. Yet Miki had immediately knew there was a big problem. Because, behind his shades, her son was frowning, and despite his draconian control, something had seeped in his voice on the last two words, altering the modulation. It sounded like anger, and anger was not something an Aburame readily expressed. So Miki had led her son in the kitchen and started to brew some green tea she knew was good for the nerves.

"What is it dear?" The Aburame matriarch asked, pouring her son and herself a cup of calming tea. Shino stared into the amber hue of the colored water as it flowed from the pot to the white recipients.

"I find myself stumped by an enigma simple logic has been unable to solve." The Aburame boy eventually said, his brow still marred by a frown. By the fact it was here, Miki could deduce the problem had been going on since quite a while, and she became worried.

"Shino, when you encounter-"

"I am, personally, not in any situation that could hurt me, ignoring the fact I frequent the Academy." Shino interrupted her mother. "It is about someone else."

Miki sighed in relief. Then felt a smile tug at the corner of her lips. So that was it. The matriarch relaxed. "What is her name?"

Her smile slipped when her son cocked an eyebrow in surprise before she forced it to return. A surprise that did not mean "how did you know?" but "why would you assume anything about a girl?" Miki swallowed. That was unfortunate, but not a problem really.

"I said nothing about a girl mother." A hint of surprise was coloring Shino's voice. "I won't try and guess why you thought it was anything to do about a girl. Anyway, the puzzle I'm unable to resolve concerns a boy."

"Think nothing of it Shino." Miki smiled again, reassuringly. "And what makes this boy an enigma?"

Shino paused for a moment. "It is not the boy himself, rather the behavior shown toward him by the majority, that I fail to understand."

"Describe it to me."

"Well, he is undoubtedly amongst the most talented of our peers, at least as far as theoretical knowledge is concerned. He does fairly well in the study of ninjutsu, bujutsu, shurikenjutsu, and bukijutsu, considering he is an orphan. I hypothesize that were he to be given proper and further tutelage, he would be just as efficient as the clan heirs in those disciplines." Shino paused, leaving his mother the time to digest the information. The woman relaxed unnoticeably at first, relieved it was, in fact, not that. She juggled with the facts provided by her son for a while, waiting for him to give her a little more.

"So what seems to be the problem?" Miki eventually asked as her son remained silent.

"What the problem is Mother, is that no one acknowledges the efforts nor the good results of my classmate. But the most bizarre is, that whenever someone belittles him, he appears to find it normal. On the contrary, when given a compliment, he seems to be in great discomfort."

"And when you said logic could not solve the enigma, you meant?"

"That there is no apparent reason for such treatment. And allow me to insist on the "no", Mother. I do believe as well that I was within the acceptable boundaries of friendly speech when I addressed him."

Shino stared at his mother, his explanation over, waiting for her own input on the mind-boggling situation. After a long, silent minute, the woman spoke.

"And why do you bother with this, Shino?" The matriarch asked, her eyes riveted to her son's.

The Aburame heir was surprised by the question, as showed the ever so slight recoil of his left shoulder. Apparently, it was something he had not bothered to take into consideration. Miki looked on as Shino racked his brain first but found nothing. Then, the mother saw her boy retract within himself, evidently looking for the answer. Escaping her gaze she still had fixated on him, Shino decided to dig in a place his familial education had little consideration for. Miki's attentive sight caught his eyes imperceptibly widening when he found an unexpected conclusion. He directed his eyes straight at her.

"I regret to have not more appropriate words, mother, but it feels terribly wrong."

Miki kept her face carefully blank, her smile still here but not quite reaching her eyes. It would have fooled anyone but a Yamanaka or a Hyuga and she knew it would fool her son. She had an inkling as to who the classmate was. A bit more than an inkling even. She felt pride at her son's sensibility, at the fact he was showing so much concern for someone else. Yet there was a gripping, snarling ripple of primal fear tinted with unmentionable guilt, and it whispered at her ear that Shino had to be protected from It. And this insidious whisper damned the rationality her clan was so proud of to hell. But she knew Shino would not accept half of an answer, especially one which would contradict in appearance everything he had ever been taught. The Aburame matriarch sighed.

"What answer do you think I can bring to this?"

"I'm wondering what could be the reason for people to treat my classmate the way they do. It seems to be entirely irrational, an emotional response only. But a response to what? I asked some of my classmates and, all, apart from Shikamaru Nara-san, answered that the boy we are talking about is some sort of demon. The terms used were various and confusing, but all suggested danger. Yet when I asked for grounds to base such accusations on, I was answered that that was what parents of my classmates told them. Surely, if this classmate was a criminal of any sort, he would be in prison. So, what do you think it is, mother?"

Miki felt herself draw a sharp breath before she slowly exhaled it. "I'm sorry Shino, but I fear I cannot give an answer to your question." The Aburame matriarch looked at her son dead in the eyes and she smiled ever so slightly. Shino would not accept to be part of what he saw as an unfair masquerade. And the rational part of her brain knew it was a masquerade they all had maintained too long. It was unbecoming of a clan of hosts to blame another one. Especially one so unwilling. So Miki squashed the whisper of fear buzzing in her ear.

* * *

"Nothing, Shikamaru. And I can only encourage you to try and be his friend," said Shikaku to his son.

"But be patient. Patience will the keyword in your endeavor to develop this friendship." Miki added as final advice to her son.

* * *

Naruto let a frustrated sigh escape his lips, and he slammed shut the book on fuinjutsu he had received as a present from his surrogate grandfather. He had received it for his twelfth birthday, three weeks ago. The blond had dreamed about a chocolate cake, but no one cared enough to pay for such an expensive delicacy. His grandfather, taken by the official business of the Remembrance Day, had apologized profusely and had given Naruto the next best thing: an apple pie, along with the small, leatherback notebook with an indecent wealth of fuinjutsu knowledge handwritten inside. The blond had also unwrapped a small pendant in the shape of a stylized horned toad's head, apparently made of silver, and with the kanji for fortune engraved on its forehead, from an unknown source. As the mysterious gifts had become a usual occurrence, Naruto did not bat an eye and decided to wear the pendant on his wrist, after careful consideration in front of a mirror. And of course, there had been the letter. So mysterious, so puzzling, so unnerving. Wishing him well. No one ever wished him well, apart from the Hokage, and maybe the mysterious guy sending the toad themed presents.

The blond shook his head and redirected his thoughts to the problem he had at hand. He gave a glare to the book, but the leather cover stayed clearly indifferent to his plea. Of course, the contents were interesting. Yet, of course, there was nothing on what he was actually after. It would have been too easy. It seemed like the Hokage was unwilling to give Naruto any kind of clue on what was kept from him. The blond boy huffed. Maybe it was time to straight up ask, and ask, and ask again until he was given an answer. It was more and more difficult to ignore the situation and accept being in the dark.

After all, the large, black seal eating his stomach and revealed when he was using chakra was difficult to ignore. Actually, Naruto felt as if he had ignored it for way too long. But his budding knowledge of the art was not enough to get a complete read on the monstrous matrix imprinted in his very flesh. It was a very complicated seal, one that, according to all that Naruto had read up until now, should not even have been possible, with its eight prongs. All the books, that Naruto could get his hand on, spoke of a limit of six prongs. Eight was absolutely unheard of. What's more, the seal was closed shut. The usefulness of any classical seal resided in the possibility to reverse it. In simpler words, open it, in order to retrieve whatever object was sealed. In the case of the fuinjutsu adorning his stomach, it would be necessary to destroy the seal completely to achieve such a result. And the only way Naruto could come up with as of now was his own utter annihilation. The thought send a shiver down his spine. What it meant, as outlandish as it sounded, was that he had something trapped inside of him. Not stored, but effectively trapped. And that something was to get out under no condition. Yet again, strangely enough, the seal was not closed tight. There was one single way for what was inside to slowly escape. That was the role of the spiral making up the center of the seal; a drain that filtered whatever was inside and allowed it out. The mildly concerning thing was that it escaped inside Naruto, either in the gate of view or in the gate of wonder. And the gate of wonder was where chakra was malaxed and stored.

The only one who could give him a final answer was the Hokage. Because if someone was going to know, it would be the ultimate authority of the village. Now Naruto only hoped the old man would not be too difficult about it. Because if he was indeed acting as a prison for something dangerous, Naruto decided the least he deserved was knowing about it. The blond smiled at nothing, vaguely happy he had come to a decision.

His smile faltered. Now, he just needed to understand his second problem. The boy threw a glance at a paper sheet with countless notes scribbled on it, then at a clock, he had on the wall of his living room, in between to drawings. It was time to visit the library.

Having donned some shoes and an inconspicuous ensemble, Naruto stood in front of his mirror. The boy flexed his fingers to warm them up and relax them. The blond then flexed his chakra before he laced his hands in a monkey seal, then a snake seal, and finally back to a monkey, the sequence executed in less than a second. Immediately, the air shimmered around him for a second and all of a sudden, the mirror reflected the image of a brown-haired boy, with brown eyes, without whisker marks, and with a slightly chubbier face and frame than Naruto. The boy nodded, satisfied, and turned heel to get out of the flat.

Naruto took a deep breath of the fresh November air, before departing for the Archives. He would not take the most direct route, as it would void the purpose of the exercise as well as vent his cover. So the boy took several twists and turns during his journey, disappearing seamlessly in the crowd of people going about whatever their business was in a Friday late afternoon. As the citizens were fooled by his basic dissimulation technique, the blond-turned-brunet couldn't help but enjoy the fact he was completely ignored. As was normal in a crowd. People did not stop and turn to scowl at him, or whisper some thinly veiled insult. Right now, he was Mister Nobody, and it was pleasant to be this guy, once in a while. His purposeful walk took him soon in front of the Archives, and Naruto entered the imposing building.

Of all the important constructions of Konoha's city-center, the Archives had suffered the less during the Kyuubi less than one minute rampage through the town. It was fortunate, in Naruto's opinion, because it was the most impressive public place of Konoha. First, it had not been built in the same traditional style every other building had been constructed in. Of course, nothing in Konoha Central was older than twelve years, as the famed red Hokage Tower had been utterly pulverized to rubles during the nine-tailed fox' attack. Today, the Tower was all rocks, cement, and concrete. But Naruto had seen old photographs, in the Archives, and had an idea of how it had looked like. The buildings forming the Hokage complex had been quite literally living, as they had been made around the Shodaime legendary wood-release, something like a hundred years ago. But the Archives had been built by the Nidaime, at a time his older brother and predecessor was already declared missing-in-action. And the Nidaime had certainly had a much, much more modern view of architecture as his brother. The result was something quite alien: four wings folded together to form a square, all made in sturdy bricks coming directly from the Hokage Monument, giving them a red hue. A grand entrance with an impressing lobby in one wing, and a large reading hall in each of the three others. Inside the square, not a courtyard, but a circular pavilion with a ceiling made of glass from Wind Country, in order for the readers to enjoy natural light to the maximum. In the spaces left in-between the inner pavilion and the wings, four small gardens at each angle, to relax. The ensemble was imposing, impressive, and it was without even mentioning the incredibly rich decorations inside the giant place of culture. And the most impressive had to be the labyrinth of underground levels, where countless documents of all kind were kept, mostly originals, waiting to be copied, sometimes translated even, before being made available to the greater public, if of course, they did not contain too sensitive information. Rumors described the undergrounds levels as bunkers, and what was certain was that only accredited people had access to them.

Naruto set foot in the monumental entrance and was greeted by a bronze statue of the Second, in full regalia, with a plate bolted on the stone support. "Knowledge is power." The disguised blond read silently for what had to be the thousandth time. It was certainly a very fundamental truth he had taken to heart. His weight made the nightingale wooden floor sing and one male receptionist threw him a passing glance. Naruto flashed the man a card certifying his membership, and the disinterested chunin chose to go back to whatever he was doing, not even bothering to notice that Naruto's depiction on the card was entirely wrong. The boy chuckled silently and turned left, toward a door above which was engraved "knowledge for the mind." Naruto knew the Archives had been greatly reorganised and modernised by the Third Hokage, and the message above the door was one of the old man's saying, dating back to the time he had earned his nickname of Professor. The two ninjas guarding the door paid the boy absolutely no mind, and Naruto wondered for a second if they had pierced his disguise but considered him not threatening, or if he had abused two chunin level ninja. He dismissed the thought as unimportant as he entered the leftmost third of the entrance wing, a room organized in quite a weird fashion. There were many counters, manned by as many employees, against the wall. Behind each counter was a weird contraption reminiscent of an abacus, yet much more complex. When asked about a subject, the employees would expertly manipulate the abacus to give the client the reference they desired. The more precise the client's demand, the more precise the references given. There were also humongous large codexes, containing all the references available in the Archives if the client wanted to try their luck by themselves. Naruto had tried once. The codex was so large he had not been able to manipulate it properly. Smiling slightly at the memory, the boy, still under disguise, approached a young woman who had just sent a visitor their way.

"Hello young man, what can I look into for you?" The woman's voice was chipper and not disagreeable to listen to. Naruto offered the employee his best smile, despite the chills running down his spine.  
"I'm looking for something on interpersonal relationships…" Naruto hesitated for the fraction of a second but caught his hand before it reached the back of his head to scratch it. His mouth felt dry. "On friendship to be exact." The boy talked in a low voice, maybe a bit lower than what was customary for the very quiet place, but the woman apparently heard him, because she immediately rotated her chair after a second, and began to play with her abacus. The blond-turned-brunet sighed and took a deep breath, calming the weird mounting anguish that had surged with his demand. A minute of balls being slid and strings being pulled later, the woman swiveled on her chair to face Naruto. She had a paper with a handful of code on it. Book references.

"You'll find it on the second-floor dear." She said with a small, warming smile. Naruto simply nodded and whispered his thanks, and let the woman take care of the next visitor undoubtedly waiting behind him. Sweat was beginning to drip from his brow and the boy was glad the penumbra the room was plunged in was masking his discomfort. Naruto took a second to take a deep breath again before he took a look at the paper the nice woman had given him. The boy shook his head. She hadn't been nice to him. She had been nice to the illusion. Had he come as himself, she would have been as disagreeable as the rest. Naruto swallowed the lump in his throat and looked at the list again. Eight possible books in all, with the first one marked with an arrow and a note. "Begin with this one." Naruto shrugged and made his way to the end of the hall, where it formed a bend and connected with the second wing. Taking the stairs, the boy entered the second floor of the left wing of the Archives. He paused a second at the view, still amazed by it despite his numerous visits.

The bookcases were shooting toward the ceiling, dominating each visitor with their four meters height. Actually, Naruto had heard from his grandfather that the bookcases were in reality pillars. They supported the weight of not only the knowledge piled within them but the weight of the entire building. In between each massive support, was a row of individual reading tables, with a small electrical lamp providing light to the user. The height of technological comfort. The boy thought of his own kerosene lamp with a lopsided grin. The height of technological comfort. At least he had a gas stove for cooking.

It took Naruto a while to gather all the reads the librarian had recommended. And ten minutes later, he was comfortably installed at one of the reading tables, ready to delve into the books. The boy took a deep breath as he began to read quickly. His fake brown eyes darted left and right along the printed words, drinking the knowledge encoded on the page. In less time than it should have taken, the boy turned the page, and time started to tick away.

Naruto was not reading in the traditional sense of the word. From hours and hours spent drawing trees from memory alone, drawings that still today decorated the walls of his apartment, he had developed a frighteningly accurate visual memory, as well as sharp attention to details. Nowhere near photographic, but very effective nonetheless. When reading books that were not especially fun, he would simply sweep the page with a glance, looking for specific keywords he had decided earlier on, and read any part that contained those keywords. He would always try this method at first. If the material was extremely complicated or actually interesting, then he would read properly.

Naruto groaned almost painfully as he hopped off his chair and stretched. Suddenly, the light diffused by the electrical lamp proved too little to sustain his reading. Casting a glance at a big clock suspended above the entrance, he saw five hours had passed already. It was well into the night, nearly midnight, but the blond paid it no mind. It was not a rare thing for people to spend the night in the Archives. Most were ninja preparing a mission, researching a jutsu, but civilians were allowed the same liberty. The Archives were never asleep, much like the Hokage Tower or the military hospital. The boy focused his eyes back to the table he had been occupying. It was covered with scrolls, the scrolls themselves covered in notes, taken by him. It was time to properly compare what he had fished in the books with the behavior from his classmate, even if Naruto knew the answer already. Carefully, the still disguised blond sat down again and covered a blank piece of paper with scribbles, describing the interactions three of his classmates were having with him. His work done, his eyes jumped to the scroll where was summarized what he had read tonight. His hands clutching his head, Naruto swallowed the lump blocking his throat as he reached the only logical conclusion he could. They were being friendly.

The boy felt his head shake left to right, beyond his control. Of course not they weren't friendly. Nobody was friendly with him. Apart from the Hokage, there was only hate. There was no friendliness for him. A smile etched itself on his face, despite the shivers wracking his body. They simply wanted something from him. He did not know what yet, but he would discover it. He would undoubtedly discover what it was they wanted if his heart stopped resounding like drums in his ears. The strange thing was, he did not possess anything of value. Did they want his toad pendant? It was made of silver after all. It was ridiculous, as both Shikamaru and Shino were from wealthy clans. His pendant was not worth that much.

It did not make any sense for them to want some jewelry they could easily acquire. Maybe it had to do with his grades. He was, after all, just as good as them at shogi, and better overall than many others from their class, including clan children. But that was just simply hard work. They were intelligent enough to figure that by themselves. Maybe they thought he cheated in class. Naruto bristled for a second at the thought. He had never cheated. He just learned quickly and efficiently. Not that he had many other things to do. What's more, Shino had no need to cheat and Shikamaru was just dead last out of choice.

Legs weak, Naruto slowly walked his way down from the second floor and out of the deserted premises of the Archives. The two chunin threw him a disinterested glance, the obscurity masking his true features. The still brown boy staggered in the streets, his gait that of a drunken man. Then, the realization pierced the clouds clogging his mind. If it wasn't for his pendant nor for his grades, then it was to mock him. Anger boiled and surged like overflowing magma. He had never done anything to them and here they were, playing a game with him. Playing at being friends only to abandon him. Playing with him only to discard him. He would show them. He was going to be Hokage and then they would see if they dared to play with him.

Naruto stomped his way back to his apartment and entered his abode in a flurry of trembling hands and ragged breaths, furiously slamming his door shut once he was in. The fake brunet stood for a second in his entryway, haggard.

"Fuck them!" Naruto roared. "Fuck every last one of them!"

The boy dashed toward his couch and, chakra rushing out of his control to his arms, lifted the piece of furniture and threw it like it did not weigh a hundred kilograms and some. The couch crashed against the bookcase and the wooden furniture oscillated under the impact, books spilling from the impact. But Naruto paid it no mind. The boy punched his table and the board caved under the first assault of his fist. Sawdust was pulverized in the air as the table folded under the weight of the attack. It was at this moment Naruto felt something impacting the base of his neck violently.

Blue eyes widened more than they could and his breath quickened to a dangerous rate. Something akin to tar spread through his throat and lungs, keeping him from breathing correctly. The shape of chakra concealing his appearance dissolved, revealing his blond hairs, his already sharp face, his toned body. Sweat rolled down his brow as all color left his face. Darkness swirled around Naruto and the boy fell unconscious.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was tired. Granted, being the Hokage of Konoha, the ultimate authority of a people nearly entirely focused on war and acting as mercenaries for the Fire Country, the lord of close to sixty thousand soldiers, was a tiring activity. But being Hokage was the smallest of his worries right now, as he was walking down a hallway in the most secure division of the Shodaime Hospital. In a quick gait, the old man found himself nearing a blue door, like any other in the hospital, guarded by two masked soldiers, members of the elite ANBU corps. Leaning against the wall opposite to the door was a woman, dressed in large, work clothes, with steel grey hair, a wrinkled face set in a severe expression, and green eyes behind a bespectacled nose. As he stopped in front of the door, the two ANBU straightened their position in a crisp salute while the woman approached him and bowed.

"Hokage-sama."

"No need for all the protocol, Kufuka. What happened to the boy?"

The grey-haired woman straightened as Hiruzen gave the ANBU a wave of his hand, granting them permission to stand at ease.

"He flew into a rage, Hokage-sama. Uzu-"

"A rage?"

"He visited the Archives and-"

"The Archives? Did something happen there?" The Hokage interrupted dryly, pacing in front of the woman.

"I believe so Hokage-sama. When he got back home, he started destroying his flat. I had to put him under. He has never been this angry, ever."

The woman's claim stopped Sarutobi in his tracks.

"What happened in the Archives?" The old Kage asked, his eyes locked on the woman's green orbs.

"You remember the recent reports about Uzumaki-san's situation in the Academy?" At the Hokage raised eyebrow, the woman knew she had to elaborate a little. "How two of his comrades are attempting to befriend him?"

The old Kage nodded. "I do remember yes."

"Uzumaki-san studied books on interpersonal relationships and friendship for the better part of the afternoon and until midnight."

Sarutobi felt his right eyebrow lift despite himself, but it was the only outward sign he was at all surprised. "So? What enraged him?"

"He had notes on interpersonal relationships and a description of the behavior of three of his classmates."

The Hokage waited for a second for more but realized it would not come. "What else, Kufuka."

"It is only conjectures from here on, but Uzumaki-san started to have a rather violent panic attack after comparing his two sets of notes. I think he figured out that the Nara and Aburame heirs are trying to befriend him but he misinterpreted something. Given what we know about him, Hokage-sama…" The woman hesitated. Hiruzen saw it and gave her a small nod.

"It is saddening me to say that, but I believe Uzumaki-san's reaction was caused by his own self-depreciation. He was angry because he probably believes the boys are trying to trick him somehow." The woman looked at her master. "We know he believes no one will ever appreciate him apart from you, Hokage-sama." As she finished her analysis, Hiruzen could swear there was something bitter under the tight leash the kunoichi had on her voice. The old man inhaled deeply, eyes closed, before he relaxed, his lungs expelling the air they had trapped in a controlled manner.

"You know we both agreed it was necessary." The old man said suddenly, his gravelly voice getting a start from the grey-haired woman, who looked sheepish.

"I know lord Hokage. I'm afraid to say that I regret my decision."

"Do not blame yourself, Kufuka. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty." Sarutobi stood silent for a few seconds. "Maybe we can have this discussion again."  
"I would like it, Hokage-sama. I just hope it is not too late."

"Naruto is strong, Kufuka. He will push through. And we will help him." The Hokage offered the woman a small smile. "Now I believe it is time for us to see him."

The small hospital room was nothing special. Everything was white, from the walls to the bedsheets, the only speck of color a bouquet of dried flowers. Hiruzen took a sharp breath as he took in the sight of his blond grandson, lying asleep in the bed.

"He woke up a while ago, but we decided to keep him under with a light genjutsu. He has been like this nearly all along." Kufuka informed quietly.

The boy was turning and tossing in his bed, his brow marred with the sweat of nightmares, groan escaping his lips.

The Hokage sighed. "Are all your nights really like this, Naruto-kun?"

"Most of them I fear, Hokage-sama," Kufuka answered his whispered question, startling him as he hadn't been aware he had spoken aloud.

Hiruzen sighed again. He knew of course. Kufuka had reported numerous time the nightmares plaguing the young boy, yet he had believed it would eventually fade. He had not assigned Kufuka as a simple caretaker. The ninja was the personal ANBU guard of Naruto, since eleven years now, watching over the blond boy days and night, following him everywhere, be it openly or secretly. Never to attach herself to her charge, she was his ever-silent guardian. And maybe he had made a mistake when defining a few of the mission parameters. The Sarutobi neighed humorlessly and shook his head. It was no time for regrets. What was done was done, and only forward could a man move and act. With a firm hand, he jerked the boy firmly two times, expelling from the boy's system the bad sleep he was having, along with the genjutsu. Bleary blues eyes looked at nothing and searched the room for a second until they focused on the Hokage.

"Jijie." The boy whimpered, his eyes reddened by tears. Hiruzen enveloped the boy in his white robes.

"Shhh, I'm here Naruto. I'm here and all is good. You can tell me everything."

Naruto enjoyed the sanctuary of the white robes and cried, ignoring the presence of his caretaker in the room. He did not know why specifically but the more he was crying, the more the weight on his chest was lessening. So Naruto cried in the folds of meshed silk, in the temple of his grandfather's arms. He knew he was not supposed to cry, a ninja was supposed to keep their emotions leashed. But the old man had offered his shoulder and the fragile dam keeping the turmoil of feelings whirling in his heart had broken immediately, shattered by the Hokage's gravelly voice. His tears stained the regal cloth, and it felt like an unending flow of bile was pouring from a gaping hollow pierced in his body. Yet at one point, the solid hold of the Hokage's powerful arms kept the boy from trembling, and the scent of tobacco and tea soothed him in a relaxed state.

"Can you talk, Naruto?"

The blond boy decided to nod.

"Will you talk?"

Naruto hesitated. For a second, he was tempted to shake his head no, to say it was fine. But it wasn't, obviously. It had never been, not completely. And Naruto knew that what was not understood alone, was better discussed in the company of someone else. So Naruto nodded again. Even if he had no idea where to begin.

"What happened in the Archives?"

Naruto felt his mouth dry up, and had to swallow hard before any kind of word was allowed to get out. His blue orbs eyed the grey-haired woman for a second.

"Does… Does Kufuka-san stay?"

Naruto had no qualm about his caretaker. She was a silent lady, efficient in her tasks. She had taught him how to take care of things around his house well. She had never insulted him, never mistreated him in any way. But she had never been more than that. She had never been particularly nice.

"I do believe it would be good, Naruto." Before the boy could ask why; his grandfather looked at him dead in the eyes and spoke again. "Trust me."

Naruto nodded and tried to gather his thoughts but to no avail. "I… Friends… I don't know." He flailed for a second before falling silent. The blond directed his blue eyes pleadingly to the Hokage, who hugged him tightly.

"Take your time Naruto."

The blond took several deep breaths which seemed to appease his shivering. His blue eyes darted left and right for a minute, lost in confused thought, until his gaze cleared, having found something; the beginning of his problem, maybe. With a steadier voice, the boy started to talk.

"It is Shino Aburame and Shikamaru Nara. Sometimes Hinata Hyuga, but mainly the boys." Naruto did not catch the delicate twitches of his grandfather's hands, nor the response in kind from the old woman. "It's been some time but, they…" Naruto's eyes glazed for a second. "They have been acting… Unlike anybody else around me. And I don't understand. I don't understand and it makes me sick. And I have nightmares about it." The boy's voice caught in his throat and he fell silent for a few long seconds.

"Why didn't you tell me anything, Naruto?" The tone of the Hokage was level, soothing, a whisper barely, a simple question that took the boy by surprise.

"I don't know." The blue-eyed blond shook his head. "I have no idea. I wanted to, but something kept me." Naruto said before his gaze cleared. "I…" The boy hesitated and looked at his grandfather, who simply offered him a smile. "I didn't want to worry you. You're always here for me. I just wanted… I do most things myself. I just wanted to do it myself. To not worry you." Naruto sighed. "It's silly, isn't it?"

The Hokage kept silent for a full minute, his wrinkled brown eyes looking away. "No." The old man suddenly said. "No, I do not think it is silly." His grandfather looked at Naruto, with the same kind smile he had for him, and Naruto felt a warmth spread in his chest. "I think it is normal for a young boy to want to solve his problems alone. You pushed through the Academy alone, you never asked for any help of any kind, ever, and you did very well for the most part." The smile morphed into a grin. "But now, you acquired some wisdom, and you know there are some things you cannot solve alone." The Hokage patted the blond mop of curled hair. "It is never shameful to seek help Naruto. It is lazy to wait for help to come to you, but never, never think seeking help is bad. One cannot solve all their problems by themselves."

"You ever seek help yourself Jijie?" The question was asked in a whisper, the tone was pleading.

The old man took a deep breath. "Of course Naruto. Just like you, like everyone else, I'm fallible."

Naruto felt his breath stop when he heard the answer. His grandfather, the indestructible pillar of his life, had just admitted he was not that indestructible. Naruto knew that, in theory. To have it told to him directly was something different. The pillar faltered and lose stones fell in an ocean of uncertainty.

"When I seek help, Naruto, far from making me weak, it supports me. It makes me stronger."

The trembling pillar was suddenly linked to many other pillars, each with a particular strength, and the linked pillars were indestructible together.

"Do you wish my help, Naruto?"

The blue-eyed boy nodded. If there was no shame for his grandfather to get help from others, he would get help from his grandfather.

"Then tell me the rest of the story, my boy."

Naruto nodded and explained, relating the problem from its roots a year before until today. How three people from his class had begun to behave differently with him, going from ignoring him to slowly, but regularly, speaking to him, working with him and even, as of recently, congratulating him. How their behavior had weirded him out, how he couldn't just ignore them like he ignored the others when they insulted him, because his anger was only good for mean jabs, not anything else. How his anxiety had kept on rising and rising. How he was terrified of those three classmates. How he had gone to the Archives to understand what the three were after. How his fear had morphed into anger.

"I still don't get it Jijie," Naruto admitted finally, his whole tale concluded.

Hiruzen had a momentary lapse of control when, as Naruto spoke, he came to understand that his grandson did not apprehend the concept of friendship naturally. That the boy he considered his family had to read books on psychology to understand, at age twelve, such an easy concept, made his tight control over his chakra slip. Hiruzen knew Naruto had no friends. He knew the stupidity of his people, their lack of faith, their treason even. He knew how his grandson was kept at arm's length at best but was often treated way worse. But he hadn't imagined that it had created an even deeper problem with the boy himself. Power surged for the fraction of a second and blanketed Konoha Central before the old man took hold of his chakra again. The Hokage sighed. He would deal with turned milk, scarred household animals, and crying infants tomorrow.

"Is… Is it ok, Jijie?" The boy had paled considerably under the indiscriminate weight of his fury, and Hiruzen immediately regretted his lapse of restraint.

"Yes Naruto, I'm sorry." The Hokage closed his eyes. "I'm truly sorry for the foolishness of our people."

"Well," the blond chuckled weakly. "It's not like you're responsible for people disliking me."

The old man sighed. "No, indeed. It does not change the fact that I am angry at my people. Angry at their ignorance and poor faith." The voice of the old man was bitter and stern, a voice Naruto had never heard coming from his grandfather. The Hokage sighed again. "But it is not a discussion for today. Now, what do you wish to do regarding your classmates?"

Naruto started at the question and took his chin in his hand, biting the flesh between his thumb and index finger slightly. His blue eyes looked at nothing while the cogs of his brain whirled at full speed.

"I don't get it, Jijie."

The Hokage offered a sad smile to his grandson. "They want to be your friends, Naruto."

The blond returned a weird, almost blank glance at the old man and flailed for a second, unsure of how to ask his question.

"But… What is it like?"

"Friendship is different for each of us, Naruto. It is a bond between people, and we draw strength from it. Only, in different shape or form, depending on what we need and who we are."

Naruto gave himself a full minute to consider the answer.

"That's as vague as you can get."

The Hokage snorted discreetly. "Maybe. But it is the truth."

The blond nodded, and immersed himself in thoughts again, under the watchful gaze of his grandfather. After yet another minute, the boy eventually broke the silence.

"Do they really mean it, Jijie?"

"What, Naruto?"

"Do they really want to be my friend?"

The Hokage sighed. "I do believe so Naruto. I know… I know now that it is not obvious to you, but trust me on that. They are willing to try."

"How are you so sure?"

"I know people are prejudiced against you. I know most children are, simply because they follow the bad example set by their elders. Do not be too quick to condemn them. If you trust me, isn't it natural they trust their parents? I'm certain that things will be different with the Aburame and the Nara."

Naruto sighed. "Like you said long ago you were certain Konoha would come to act normal with me?"

The old man could only shut his eyes for a second, assaulted by a rare kind of pain. It took a second for the Kage to answer. "No, if anything, I trust two clever boys from two clans recognized for their intelligence to make the right choice. The choice to see you for who you are, Naruto."

"Why would they do that?"

"Because it is at this age that people start to question the example set by the adults. Also, I believe neither the Nara nor the Aburame were ever… Cold towards you."

The blond emitted something that could pass for a scoff, and pouted. "Easy, I never had business with them. They never were my friends either."

"They have been trying for a year now if what you told me is true. Do not dismiss them."

The blond frowned and uncrossed his arms, tried to pout for a bit longer but failed, and ultimately sighed.

"I know it is never easy for an Aburame to socialize, and the Nara friendship with the Akimichi is legendary, and it probably kept Shikamaru busy for the first year. It's been more than a year they are trying to get closer to you. They did not let up yet." The Hokage fixed his eyes on Naruto. "Won't you give them a chance? Won't you give yourself a chance?"

The blond looked back at his grandfather for three full seconds, peering at the brown eyes for something. Maybe the hint of deception. But his grandfather had never lied to him and Naruto could not find anything, and he averted his gaze, directing his blue eyes to stare at the ground. Could he even get used to the strange, novel, alien attention the two heirs had for him? Could he even appreciate it? Could he even return it? One sharp, elongated canine bit down on his lower lips. Hard enough that blood pearled and slowly dropped along his chin. His laced fingers and his clasped hands were wet with perspiration. Suddenly, Naruto squeezed his hands, so hard they became white.

"I have no idea how."

The Hokage considered his oldest grandson for a second before he took the blond's chin and lifted it. "Well, friendship is complicated yet not. First, you need to give them a modicum of trust. Accept that what they give, they give in good faith. Then talk. Friendship is about many, many things, but it is always based on exchange at first. When you feel ready, trust them a little more, and they will do the same."

"What if they… Betray me?"

"They will not Naruto. That I can assure you. It might not work but they will not betray you. Sometimes people do not become friends, they are simply too different. It is why you must give people your trust bit by bit. If they return it in kind, then you will build something strong over time."

The blond boy sighed. "It sounds exhausting."

"It is worth a lot, my boy. A lot."

"Jijie?"

"Yes, Naruto?"

"Thanks."

Instead of answering, the old man hugged the blond boy tighter for a full minute, and Naruto allowed himself to relax in the safe embrace. Another minute later, and his blue eyes closed as he sunk in a peaceful sleep, mind reeling from alien concepts and strange thoughts.

 **A/N: I hope you enjoyed. I think this chapter should give you a hint about where I want to take my Naruto. You should, of course, leave a review to give your kudos to Blue. On an unrelated note, to anyone out there willing to write and share it, never post a chapter immediately. Let it stew and come back to it after a good week. Even better, start writing the next chapter. You'll realize how much illogical things you wrote in the previous one. I'm not saying there is no illogical tidbit here and there in this chapter, but boy did I cut through a lot.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A\N: Hello readers. Here are twelve thousand words for you to enjoy. Beta read by Bluepencils12. Thank you, Blue, for your work.**

The figure was here, staring, almost faithful in its commitment to haunt Naruto's mind and turn each night into a nightmare. The golden halo of hair, so similar to the boy's, swayed in a non-existent wind, and the smell of rot made Naruto gag. The blond bit his lower lip and closed his eyes. He knew he would not escape it. The deafening peal of laughter rang in his ears like porcelain shattering. It did not mean anything was real. The sudden, intruding caress, as pleasant as sandpaper scratching against his skin, startled him, but he kept his head from jerking back and opened his blue eyes to look at the frustrating presence. He hated being here. He hated the figure. He hated being unable to refuse its touch. Tears rolled down his face when the thing kissed his forehead, its lips searing his flesh like some sort of branding, his heart tearing open. The black tar started to engulf his body in its viscousness, just as the figure began to walk away from him. Naruto sank and awoke.

Sweat drenched covers and bed sheets fought against the spastic movements of the boy for a minute, before he relented, calm settling over his body, his hacked breath evening out, his feverish eyes focusing, the cobwebs of sleep clearing from his addled mind. Another minute passed before two wobbly legs carried the child to his bathroom. Despite the desire burning his chest, he had no time for the letter today. The blond flinched briefly at the snarking picture of his reflexion and fought the urge to smash the mirror. It was a piece of glass, all he would gain was an injury, and after the table last Friday, he wasn't keen on breaking anything else. He would control his emotions. A deep breath later and another minute was enough to perform his ablutions; he was sufficiently late as it was. The blond fought briefly against the temptation of a long shower but decided against it. His sensei had been in general less harsh than the previous ones, and he wasn't going to endanger that state of thing by being late. Not even once.

It was with his usual, eyesore of a jumpsuit that Naruto made his way to the Academy. He tuned out the people. Today was going to be complicated. Now that he knew more, he could act. It did not necessarily mean he would. His grandfather's instructions had been vague at best. The glares washed over him, but he did not feel them. The problem had simply changed. Naruto knew at least two people were trying to establish a friendship with him. He was still not certain he wanted to answer in kind. He knew he would undoubtedly create a storm of sneezes somewhere, but it was troublesome.

Naruto sidestepped absentmindedly the man who regularly tried to trip him. The blond could not understand why the individual still tried. He had been roughed up by ANBU for going a little too far once, yet he still tried. Naruto hesitated for a moment, his train of thoughts derailed. He definitely wanted to hurt the man. He realized he wanted it badly. Imagining the man writhing in pain on the ground was an almost relaxing thought. The glares and the insults, he could put up with. He had put up with it, actually, since forever. But hurting him was another thing entirely. His grandfather had given him the possibility to end a fight, as long as he did not start any. He wondered if that offer extended to insufferable civilians. He knew they would only hold him in a worse light if he were ever to do that. Actually, could his treatment become any worse? The blond emitted a highly frustrated noise. He did not care that much personally, but it would set a precedent and who knew how the situation would evolve. Probably in a spiral, out of his control, which was not good right now. Maybe the ANBU could actually take care of that for him, after reflection. He just had to "fall" for the man's attempt at tripping him. A second was enough to decide that it was definitely too much work. He'd have to be convincing enough to fool ANBU and it was not happening anytime soon. He really had to read about laws, see what was feasible.

Focusing once again on the important question of the day, Naruto resumed his way to the ninja school. Building a friendship seemed to be complicated, but the words of his grandfather kept echoing again and again in the back of his head. "It's worth a lot." Now Naruto did not have a point of comparison, not really. The Hokage was family, in a way. A twisted way maybe, but still, Jijie was Jijie, so Naruto could not pretend to compare what having a friend was to having his grandfather. How much exactly was "a lot", Naruto had no idea. He preferred not to. As a rule of thumbs, if you expected nothing, you could not be disappointed.

The blond boy found himself at the entrance of the massive concrete complex that was the Academy. It looked like a bunker and it was one. The inner layout was confusing, no plan of it existed, at least supposedly, and anyone caught drawing one was immediately sent to T and I.

The sole touch of colour, from the exterior, was the board above the entrance, where shinobi was spelled the traditional way. Endure.

Something stopped Naruto's step, freezing him in place. The red wooden board, with the word etched on it, was another remnant of the Kyuubi's rampage. His mind was mulling the conversation he had with his grandfather, three days before, over and over. "You ever seek help yourself Jijie?"

Blue eyes stared at the board and tried to bore a hole into it. The board had been made by Hashirama Senju's mokuton, and the word carved by Madara Uchiha's katon. Endure.

It was what made a good ninja. The one cardinal virtue, the ability to endure, to never let down, to never give up. The blond looked at the board with intent. Below the kanji for shinobi was etched the maxim of Konoha. There were four symbols of the traditional tongue, spelling _Hi no Ishi_. The Will of Fire. The belief that people were stronger together. The belief that people were at peace together. Naruto felt an itch at the back of his mind, and his gaze jumped from the symbol for Shinobi to the symbol for Will several times. "Of course Naruto."

Blue eyes widened as the beginning of comprehension, perhaps a chunk of wisdom, graced Naruto. A slow laugh, hoarse, dry, as if rarely practiced, escaped the blond's lips. Endure.

Except nobody had ever said to endure alone. Naruto ceased to laugh and straightened then inhaled deeply, expanding his chest cavity wide. He balled his hands slowly but firmly into fist and he frowned slightly. He strode inside the Academy grounds with a powerful gait. He had nothing to lose. He had something to gain. And it was "worth a lot", apparently.

Despite his late, for him, awakening, the classroom was mostly empty. Out of pure reflex, Naruto immediately walked up the stairs to find his seat at the back. Only once he was seated did he spare a glance at the people already present. The Hyuga heiress. The Aburame heir. The Uchiha. The Yamanaka heiress on the left. A pink haired civilian on the right. He was late but not that late, as those were the only people present. Naruto's eyes focused back on Shino. The Aburame boy was sitting alone, as usual, and Naruto knew he would sit alone for the rest of the day. Too many in the class deemed the silent heir as creepy, and few ever sat next to him. The Aburame boy was actually the target of pretty much the same kind of exclusion Naruto himself suffered. Less extreme certainly, but the same nonetheless. From the other children at least, the teachers never treating the Aburame like they would Naruto. This got Naruto to frown. It was natural for people of all age to sneer at him. But to do the same to the Aburame, heir to a respected clan of Konoha, was weird. All because his body contained insects. Naruto, as far as he was concerned, was more curious as to how it worked than disgusted. If he ever had the occasion, Naruto was sure he would have hundreds of questions for the aloof boy.

Naruto's blue eyes widened. There was no one next to the Aburame. Class was not starting for another fifteen minutes. He could totally seat next to the boy. And then what? Launch a casual conversation? The blond had no idea how to.

He did it with his grandfather. It was easy with his grandfather. But his skin was not crawling with nightmarish sensations when he was with his grandfather. His heart was not beating out of his chest with his grandfather. He was not feeling colder than winter with his grandfather.

Yet if he wanted to ever form a connection, any kind of meaningful connection, with someone, anyone, he would need to surmount those uncomfortable feelings. Naruto smiled bitterly. Should he be forthcoming with them? Shino and Shikamaru were bright, they would understand. Would that be enough to slight them though? How personally would they take it? They were the origin of the unpleasantness Naruto was experiencing. It was not their fault. It was not Naruto's fault either. It was no one's fault truly, if you decided to not accuse the village as a whole, but the two boys could misinterpret, misunderstand.

Before Naruto could reach a conclusion, the classroom filled with more and more students until nearly all seats were occupied. Some people had failed through the years, being held back or sometimes even removed completely from the Academy, thus leaving some holes in the ranks. Chatter invaded the quiet room and soon enough, their teacher arrived.

Naruto's life was rhythmed by the Academy and his class had fallen into a comfortable routine, so when Iruka asked his students to open their book on psychology, the blond boy was not surprised. The class kept on learning about various aspects of clinical psychology and its use in solving negotiations with various stakes. To that was regularly added a mass of condensed material from the previous five years to review, plus the two hours long of either taijutsu, bukijutsu, or shurikenjutsu training that had wormed its way in every morning before the lunch break. The shogi session took place every afternoon. Naruto had no time to be bored, as Iruka was more demanding than any teacher the class had had before had been. Twice a week for three weeks, their professor had dished test after test, mixing every possible subject and requiring precise answers from the students. But the blond took it in stride, as he had always learned things in a way that had ingrained them in his brain. To him, it was simply spewing forth dormant knowledge on demand.

Hours passed quickly and Naruto started to absorb the knowledge given by Iruka, momentarily forgetting about much else. The shurikenjutsu session was a blur as the blond scored better than academic standards, the spawn of the Uchiha clan stealing the spot of the best sniper as always. It was only when the bell rang, signifying the end of the morning, that Naruto once again faced his conundrum.

The students were dispersed in small groups, eating either in the vast refectory or huddled together in the yard. The shouts of younger students echoed, mainly from the field used to play cuju, but also from the obstacle trail, and some simply from simpler games of "it". But Naruto was indifferent to it all. He was indifferent to the chaos of the schoolyard because Shino Aburame was currently having lunch alone and Naruto's mind was screaming at him to take the opportunity.

The blond boy felt as if he was living his nightmare. His legs weighed tons and his feet were glued to the ground. Naruto refused to let his nocturnal fears control his daily life, so the blond pushed on his legs. His left foot rose and fell, and Naruto progressed towards his goal from a few inches. Now he only had to make the right foot follow. If only his damn legs were keener on following his damn orders. None of his endeavors were ever easy, the boy lamented for a second before he willed once again his legs to move. It took him a full minute of hesitant steps to reach the Aburame heir. His breath was shorter than what was probably healthy and it hitched once in his throat once Naruto realized he had the attention of the brown haired boy.

"What might I do for you, Uzumaki-san?"

The blond had to keep himself from flailing his arms around like some sort of windmill as he searched for his breath, found it, and firmly reigned it in. Swallowing what he hoped was the total sum of his nervousness, Naruto finally found his voice.

"Would you have lunch with me?"

Shino had to keep his eyebrows from shooting past his hairline but could not manage to keep his jaw tight in time. Fortunately, he reminded himself his high-collared coat masked his gaping mouth before he also reminded himself he was eating and that his collar was open. The blond boy facing him instantly reddened, having no doubt seen his hanging jaw. Shino remembered the words of his mother and spoke quickly before his classmate could form any kind of wrong opinions.

"It'd be my pleasure Uzumaki-san."

Shino watched as Naruto swallowed hard and sat, settling a bento in front of him. The two boys started eating in silence, one that was comfortable to Shino but apparently not to his lunch companion. The Aburame boy allowed the gear of his, in all humility, brilliant mind, to run and turn at full speed. He lost no time cursing his mother's advice, knowing that to lament how vague it was would be of no help, and quickly went to practical consideration. Naruto was uncomfortable with the silence. Shino wasn't but the blond boy had no way to know. It was the first time Naruto took such an initiative to eat with Shino. In fact, as far as Shino's knowledge went, it was the first time Naruto was eating with anyone. Naruto probably had no idea what to say, if anything had to be said. Shino carefully considered several options before going for the one he decided was his best bet.

"I'm happy to have lunch with you, Uzumaki-san."

It was the truth. Shino saw a small, hesitant smile bloom on the blond's face, and silently thanked the great hive for the lessons on psychology from the Academy and from his clan. No Aburame was talented when it came to interacting with people outside of the clan, the majority of the villagers, ninja or not, thinking them to be insensitive.

"Thank you Aburame-san." The blond interrupted Shino's thoughts. The brown haired boy could see Naruto wanted to say more but was hesitant to do so. The clan heir decided to tread with prudence. He did not know what the blond would take or not as an offense. The fact he was willing to even discuss showed an open disposition Shino was not going to waste. The Aburame answered Naruto with a small smile on his own. His clanmates were not known for smiling, mainly because they all wore some kind of high collared coat, but they were perfectly capable to do so, contrary to popular belief. It was simply reserved to grand occasions.

Shino kept eating and watched as Naruto fidgeted. The blond had something on his mind, evidently, but Shino was not sure how to help his classmate out.

"I…" The blond exclaimed suddenly only to immediately fall silent. His blue eyes were darting nervously left and right. Surreptitiously, Shino lowered his right flat on the table and straightened as he exhaled a deep breath.

The calm he crafted by carefully manipulating his own body-language appeased Naruto and Shino could not help but smile again.

"I'm sorry."

Shino's smiled disappeared. "What for, Uzumaki-san?"

The blond gripped his own hands and squeezed, as his blue eyes lost themselves in his lunch box. After a few seconds, Shino was ready to say something, anything really, to alleviate the stress crushing the Uzumaki, but the blond beat him.

"You've been approaching me for… For a few months now and I..." The boy hesitated, unsure how to formulate his thoughts into words, his eyes searching something past Shino's left shoulder. His hands flailed for a second, this time as if Naruto was grabbing for something flying past him before he pushed them flat on the dinner table. His rebellious hands under control, Naruto took a deep breath."I did not know how to respond to that." The blond continued in a whisper.

Shino waited. He knew the blond was not done. As calmly as he could, the Aburame kept eating, slowly, giving the Uzumaki time to gather himself.

"I'd… I'd really like to be your friend." Naruto blurted suddenly, looking at Shino dead in the eyes, piercing him almost with his azure orbs. The blond boy nervously scratched the back of his head. "If you'd like it of course."

Shino felt the breath he did not know he was holding escape his lungs and his face was split by a large smile. A smile he knew was too large for him, unbecoming of an Aburame. He would reflect on that later. It was definitely not forbidden to smile for a member of his clan, despite the popular beliefs. And right now, it _felt_ terribly right to be smiling.

"Of course Uzumaki-san. And there was no offense."

Shino could see the tension leaving Naruto's body like boiling water leaving the stove. The Aburame had keen eyes and could see the blond was making a conscious effort to suppress the usual uncomfort he would feel whenever subjected to positive attention. Shino, along with Shikamaru, and after consulting his parents, had deduced that it was what made Naruto sick when they congratulated him. Or even when they simply talked to him. Heeding the counsel of their parents, Shino and Shikamaru had decided to continue to offer praise to Naruto when it was reasonable to do so and did so with as little an audience as possible. Yet today, there was a gleam in the blue eyes and a long sigh that Shino identified as just as many signs of relief. And if the tentative smile on the blond boy's lips was any indication, the Uzumaki was quite happy from Shino's answer.

"So Aburame-san..?"

"Yes, Uzumaki-san?"

"This friendship thing… I'm not sure how it works?" There was a discreet shrug of the blond's shoulder to punctuate the questioning statement.

Shino refused to facefault. All the same, he contained the sweatdrop. Those were not things members of the Aburame clan did. It was a matter of pride, and an old rivalry with the Hyuga every child of the Aburame was made familiar with. Shino did take a second to collect himself and wrap his head around what Naruto had just asked, though.

"Well first… How about we use our first name, Naruto? Last names are…" Shino stopped. He would not use this particular word. It was banned from his clan; about that the rumors were true. The Aburame heir eventually found a word he thought apt. "Cumbersome."

The smile on the Uzumaki's lips turned into a sideways grin, that showed a longer than average canine. "Certainly, Shino."

The two young boys ate in a much more comfortable silence, in appearance at least, enjoying their respective food. Time ticked slowly and eventually, chopsticks scrapped at the last remnants of food left in the lunchboxes.

Naruto decided to break the silence, curiosity about his new friend winning over the alien dread he was feeling. The blond was still unsure if he should, if he could, call Shino that. The Aburame boy had confirmed he was looking to be Naruto's friend but the blue-eyed boy could not shake the feeling it was unnatural. The only one he was friend with was his Jijie. He had secretly hoped his uncomfort would disappear but apparently, he would have to fight through it. It was with a trembling spine, a queasy stomach, and a brow marred with a thin layer of sweat that Naruto spoke.

"Say Shino?"

"Yes, Naruto?" The Aburame asked as he gathered his tableware.

"Could you… Tell me a bit about your clan?"

"Of course Naruto." Shino tilted his head pensively as his right hand mechanically zipped the collar of his coat up. "Let's see. We are one of the founding clans of Konoha and each member lives in symbiosis with one or more hive of specially bred kikaichu." The brown haired boy paused for a second. "But you knew that already, right?"

Naruto nodded firmly. "Mmhh… I have been curious for a while about how this symbiosis works," the blond admitted timidly.

Shino could not stop his brow from furrowing and Naruto immediately saw it, because the blue-eyed boy paled slightly and began to scratch the back of his head.

"If it's clan secrets, it's ok to not tell me anything."

Shino shook his head. "No, not at all. I'm just surprised you are so willing to discuss a subject most find… Disturbing."

"The symbiosis?"

"Yes. Many find the practice… Disgusting."

There was a pained look in Naruto's azure orbs but it lasted for a second only before the boy shook his head "no" firmly and looked straight at Shino.

"I don't. I think it's extraordinary, to be honest."

Shino almost started at the claim. The Aburame boy stared at Naruto behind his shades, intently, but could see no sign of deception, no trace of dishonesty. Decidedly, today was a good day to smile.

"I'm glad to hear you see it that way." Shino's smile faltered behind his collar. The fact that Naruto was not disgusted by the kikaichu was great. The reason behind was probably in part terrible. The Aburame cleared the sad thought. It would not do to hold such sentiment, for it would undoubtedly breed pity. Shino was very certain Naruto did not need pity. Cutting himself off from his musing, the boy adjusted his shades and resumed what he had to say. "I'll probably be unable to answer all questions but feel free to ask."

"Mmhhh… I wonder how it works really?" Naruto shot an awkward glance at Shino, clearly unable to pinpoint his question in more precise terms.

"Well, the symbiosis must begin when the human subject is very young. During a process we call merging, a young Aburame becomes host to one hive-"

"How are they selected? The hive I mean."

"The infant often receive a hive born from his parents' hives. It ensures reasonable compatibility."

"I guess you won't tell me where it is in your body?"

"Sorry Naruto, but this information is indeed classified by my clan. Not even the Hokage knows."

Naruto whistled, impressed. It did make sense. If one knew where the hive was located, it would be like painting a target on every single Aburame to ever exist. He was surprised the secret had never leaked out. All it would take was a dead Aburame and a dissection table. Naruto contemplated the thought for a second, decreed it as possible but disturbing and decided not to ask.

"So… What can your kikai do really?"

"First, you should know that the correct term would be ninchu. For ninja insect. There exist several types of insects and kikaichu are only one out of many we breed. So different for different purpose really."

"All birthed by the same queen? Or do you need say, two or three queens to get all the sort of insects available?"

"I regret, that's also something I cannot answer."

Naruto nodded his understanding. "What can you tell me about the various ability of your insects?"

"Some can devour chakra, some can track rather efficiently thanks to pheromones, some can poison people… Nature is pretty inventive. Those are only abilities we encouraged to grow, really."

"You breed insects yourself?"

"Yes. Father started to instruct me on that." Shino could see the ache Naruto suffered momentarily at the mention of a father, but the Aburame boy chose not to comment on that. "It is a really interesting process. It requires a lot of patience but when the insects present the wanted characteristic, it is truly satisfying."

The blond nodded. "I guess. Must be cool." It was said with a longing in the tone that made Shino unsure of what was cool, really, and the Aburame heir decided it was his turn to ask Naruto things before the conversation died in awkward silence.

"You study fuinjutsu yourself, right Naruto?"

The blond was shaken out of his funk and acquiesced. "Yep. My orphan name is Uzumaki and apparently, they were a clan specialized in it. Hokage-sama helps me from time to time. It's quite fun too." Naruto stopped for a second before smiling wryly. "When it is not straight incomprehensible."

"You work with Hokage-sama?" There was certain awe in Shino's voice and Naruto tried as best he could not to fidget.

"Not really?" drawled the blond, dragging the vowels through his teeth. "He sometimes, _sometimes_ , find an hour or so to help me through a particularly tough matrix." Naruto hesitated a second. "He says I have talent," whispered the boy, unsure what was ok to claim or not.

"That's… Rather impressive." Shino commented, keeping the vibrato in his voice as controlled as he could and fighting with all his education to not shout some inane word like awesome.

"Thanks. I guess."

Shino saw Naruto shudder and recognized the telltale signs of the boy's inconfort. The Aburame decided to push. The blond deserved the praise. Even if Shino knew nothing to fuinjutsu, receiving the Hokage's acknowledgment was something people ought to recognize.

"No really. If Hokage-sama says you are good, then you are, undoubtedly."

Silence, for a few seconds, fell on the table.

"Would you introduce me to the discipline, Naruto?"

"I'm sorry?"

"I asked if you would consider introducing me to the fundamentals of fuinjutsu? I guess I cannot really share much of experiments with you, as they are part of clan business, but fuinjutsu is an art open to each ninja in the village."

Naruto fidgeted for a while, his eyes darting left and right all along.

"If it's-"

"Why?"

Shino considered the question carefully and answered slowly. "Because I do believe fuinjutsu is something we could share. I believe it could be an enjoyable activity."

Naruto nodded before once again scratching the back of his neck.

"I don't know if I can be a good teacher though."

"I'm quite sure you'll be more than capable."

It was at this moment the bell rang, signifying the obligated return to class for, the boys knew it, the now traditional shogi session. Naruto and Shino both gathered their lunch box, cramming them in their bag, and rushed to the classroom. The refectory was on the other side of the Academy and the hallways were filled to the brim with students of various age. Gaggles of six years old followed their teacher while older boys and girls were deemed big enough to find their way alone. In the schoolyard, the teams of cuju, under the supervision of three instructors, were shelving the ball and the numbered shirts they had used to identify the players. Naruto wondered briefly what it was like to play cuju, before shaking his head and following Shino. Soon the two found themselves in front of the door, when Naruto stopped Shino, a hand firmly on the Aburame's shoulder.

"Shino?"

The brown haired boy turned slowly.

"Yes, Naruto?"

The blond swallowed and his blue eyes started to search the ground for some kind of answer. Shino had to refrain a frown. It was there again. The unease, the shift, the alien sensation that something was not right. Naruto, so used to disdain and scorn as he was, could not, would not believe him.

"Naruto?"

The blue-eyed boy started and his right hand reached his neck, scratching it nervously.

"I- It's just… You are…" The blond flailed for a second. "Supportive?"

Shino nodded once, firmly, and stared at the boy. "I meant what I said Naruto. You are quite capable."

Having said that, the Aburame heir turned, leaving Naruto rooted in place with a shy smile slowly blooming on his lips.

"I do believe you owe me a return match of shogi. We will need a board for that, Naruto, and I'm not bringing it here."

Naruto started and shook like a wet cat, this time grinning rather widely, for him at least. The Aburame did practice humor apparently. Rumors were so wrong. "Yeah sure Shino. I'm coming to get my win again."

Naruto fell face first on his couch, a smile still turning his lips in an upward crescent. The blond groaned when he carelessly impacted one armrest with his knee. He did not swear because, as weary as he was, he was too happy to swear. The pain dulled quickly and the boy sighed contentedly. The day had been exhausting frankly. Even if his inconfort had greatly diminished, it was still there, and Naruto felt really uncomfortable in his clothes. They were damp from perspiration. Groaning once more, the blond derobed and went to his bathroom, sowing various articles of clothing on the ground. There was a relieved sigh when warm water flowed and eased the ache his entire body was plagued with. The boy allowed himself to enjoy the shower longer than what was socially acceptable, and eventually donned a plain white cotton pair of pants and a black shirt with a red swirl on it. Naruto did not pay it any mind. He had stopped doing so. He knew it was the emblem of the Uzumaki clan, who he was not really part of. His grandfather had insisted he could not tell Naruto anything about his parents, and the boy had simply received the name as was the tradition for orphaned infants. All orphan would receive a namesake at random when they reached three. It was then the duty of the clan bearing the name to adopt the child and provide for them. Of course, Naruto, with his strange luck, had inherited a name which belonged to an extinct clan. As such, he was considered pupil of the Hokage. Naruto had stopped asking questions. Whatever the old man knew, he would not tell the boy, so the boy had relented.

Naruto crumbled once again, this time in a more orderly fashion, bottom first, on the couch. He was feeling better but he was tired. He had absolutely no desire to cook anything. With a quick mental review, he realized Kufuka had prepared him something. It was "cool week", as Naruto dubbed it within the secret confine of his mind. During "cool week", he did not need to cook for himself. Only during Sunday. He always cooked for himself on Sunday anyway.

Lazily, the blue-eyed boy rose from his dismembered position on the sofa to a stand and walked in a manner reminiscent of a Nara's gait, until he reached his fridge. This was definitely the height of modern comfort. A fridge powered by electricity. A shame the electrical installation did not cover the whole flat. Only his kitchen living-room was equipped with the fairy. The insulated door opened with the suction noise of joints separating from their resting surface and Naruto scanned the inside quickly. Boxes, for the first half of the week. The blond smiled and took one labeled "dinner".

"Thanks, Kufuka-san."

He did not know if the ANBU was here. After his… Moment at the hospital, the Hokage had revealed the woman was way more than his caretaker. She was also his silent guardian. She was the one who dispatched many unpleasant people over the years and scarred many others enough that the result was pretty much the same.

When Naruto had asked about the man tripping him regularly on the way to the Academy, his grandfather had answered in a sigh that it wasn't an offense deserving of ANBU level punishment. Naruto did not want to know what was ANBU level punishment, apparently.

Returning to his dinner, Naruto considered the content of the box and opted for cold food. He would heat it just enough that it was not freezing.

A few minutes later, the blond was seated in front of a lukewarm plate of rice, various vegetables, cold chicken, and some mayonnaise. Because the day had been trying and mayonnaise was, after ramen, the best comfort food he knew of. Especially with cold chicken.

Naruto enjoyed his meal slowly, his mouth chewing on the food and his mind on the day's events. As his jaw activated rhythmically, a smile split his face, as surely as the sun would rise eastward. He could not stop it and actually had to stop eating to avoid spilling food. The smile turned to an ear-to-ear grin and his eyes closed. Naruto spread his arms and stretched with a grunt of pleasure while a chuckle escaped his lips. Soon, he was laughing, heartily.

He had made a friend today. Or at least, he was on a good path. It was huge. His grandfather was right; if the elation Naruto was feeling was anything to go by, friends were worth a lot.

It took a while before Naruto could resume his dinner but the blond eventually consumed all the food and washed the tablewares quickly with an expert hand. His stomach full and in a mood brighter than he ever remembered being in, Naruto lay on his couch with his old, worn out favorite book. Tonight, he would read his favorite story. He knew it by heart. It was a story he read often when he was down. As a matter of fact, he generally read this particular book when he was down. But tonight, morale was high and he wanted to enjoy his favorite tale under a different light. Opening the "Tales of the Kingdoms of Guangbai and Mohuhei" near the end, he immediately found the chapter he was looking for. In fact, the page was so marked, the book opened more often than not on this very page. It was the mysterious power of overused books: they knew you and they knew what you were looking for.

Blue eyes immediately focused on the many words laid on the paper, waiting to be read. Naruto unconsciously smiled. Yes, he liked this story. It was simple really and not that original. Simply the tale of how a young squire saves the abducted princess from the clutches of the enemies. It was a little more complex than that of course, as the blond was not one to enjoy a simple damsel rescue story. First, the princess is obviously smart, because it's thanks to her ploy that the young squire, ever the observant one, reaches her before the myrmidons can carry her to the dungeon of their master. Second, the squire is obviously smart too, as he is the one noticing the princess's ploy. Third, the princess and the squire end up kicking ass and taking name together, back to back.

Naruto did not know if he would ever fight back to back with Shino but it was a pleasant feeling to imagine. The blond's smile faltered and the book left his hands, falling on the floor. He was getting ahead of himself. It had taken him everything to speak to Shino during lunch. Would it be just as hard tomorrow? Certainly, the Aburame heir had been nothing but pleasant, but Naruto did not know how to read people. What was the value of the simple exchange they had? People were only friendly when Naruto wore a mask of some sort. What did Shino see, to be friendly with him when he was himself?

The blond firmly shook his head. His grandfather had told him it would take time. He had told him he had to trust. Shino had been pleasant. Shino had meant what he said. Shino had joked. Shino never joked, with anyone.

Shino trusted him a little. It was between them. Naruto had seen what was hidden behind the high collared coat.

As he realized that, terror gripped at Naruto's heart, as the blond felt how badly he wanted that to happen again. He thought he wanted power. He needed power so that the civilian would cower in fear. He needed power so that he would become the Hokage everyone would obey and respect, too afraid to dare much else. He needed power so that the anger ever boiling somewhere in his heart would leave. But at this instant, it all seemed so meaningless, simply because someone had been willing to look at him, talk to him, and Naruto had not needed his usual disguise.

Someone who was not his grandfather was willing to see the blond for himself and share things with him, and Naruto wanted that to happen again. He wanted it very much, much more than any kind of power. The blond loved his grandfather, of course. But to know that the old man was not the only one who accepted to see him without a _henge_ masking his features was a new experience. And maybe his anger had been assuaged a little. The knot of tension holding the blond's shoulders came undone and Naruto sobbed silent tears of relief as a grin graced his face.

* * *

Tuesdays were a drag. The week as a whole was a drag but Tuesdays were especially terrible. Why? Shikamaru did not know exactly why and it was partly the reason Tuesdays were so troublesome. But his dislike for all that is Tuesday had nothing to do with the present situation. Apart from the fact that said situation is happening on a Tuesday.

This Tuesday had started like any other, with his mother shaking him awake and threatening to throw him by his window if he did not get a move on. That was rather usual, as his mother disliked all that is lazy. How the woman married into the Nara of all the clans in Konoha, Shikamaru had no idea. Maybe his father _was_ the womanizer he pretended to be. The pineapple haired pre-teen discarded the thought as soon as he had it. His father was too lazy to be a womanizer. So after his usual wake up call, there had been breakfast, then a shower, then a quick peck on his forehead, because for all her overwhelming distaste of lazy, Shikamaru's mother did love her family, and then the Academy. In a word, troublesome. But not much more than usual. Not much less either, really. It was just a Tuesday.

Then, things had spiraled out of control. Shikamaru prided himself on being observant. He had seen, just yesterday, how Shino and Naruto shared lunch. His laziness had prevented him to think much of it. He had constated as well that the two boys had an engaging discussion during their shogi session, the tone more than cordial, friendly some would say. His laziness had kept him from reacting.

Shikamaru had thought nothing much would happen today, but apparently, Naruto Uzumaki had decided otherwise.

"Could you repeat that?" The Nara asked, his right pinky scratching his right ear.

"I, um, was wondering if you wanted to have lunch with Shino and me?" The Uzumaki answered while scratching the back of his head.

Hands and what to do with them were so troublesome really. Especially when one was surprised or embarrassed; it was the worst.

Shikamaru hesitated a split second. Enough time for his, in all humility, formidable brain, to work through the question, its consequences were he to accept, the fact he himself had pushed towards Naruto, the fact refusing would probably demolish a year worth of troublesome efforts.

"Troublesome. Choji is my friend. Can he come too?"

Appearance absolutely had to be maintained. And Choji was too shy for his own good, and he needed more friends than just Shikamaru. Hell, Shikamaru needed more friends than just Choji, even if it was troublesome. The questioning answer took Naruto by surprised and he grinned weakly and scratched the back of his head furiously. The blond had apparently not envisioned the possibility of Choji joining them.

"Are you… uh sure?"

Shikamaru knew what was behind the question. He knew how most people glared at the blond. It had even been a problem for Shikamaru. The pineapple haired boy nodded. He did not want to think about the problem, and he knew full well Choji would not become one.

"Yeah. Choji is kinda shy but he _is_ cool."

"Oh, okay then."

Shikamaru motioned Choji with a smile and the four boys made their way to the refectory where they chose a small table. Shikamaru sat next to his Akimichi friend and across Naruto. There would come a time to have a game of musical chairs, but it was the first meeting. The Nara reminded himself of the words of his father. Take it slow. He nearly missed Naruto taking a deep breath and straightening himself.

"So… I'm sorry, Nara-san."

Shikamaru could not keep his eyes from widening as he stared at Naruto. His Nara alarm was blaring. Things he deemed too troublesome to care about would be raised and Shikamaru would need to provide an answer. Given the pained look painted on Naruto's face, the blond did see the subject as important, and it was Shikamaru's responsibility to not screw up.

"It's Shikamaru, Naruto. And what for?" asked the Nara with a voice as soothing as possible while eying Shino discreetly. The Aburame nodded imperceptibly but said nothing.

"You've been friendly for months now and I did not know how to… Properly interpret that." The blond piercing azure eyes rose from the table to Shikamaru's own brown orbs. "I want to befriend you… Shikamaru-san." The blond stopped, apparently finished, before his hand shot to his neck. "Oh, and… And you too, Akimichi-san, of course. If you wish too of course."

"Shikamaru, Naruto. And yeah of course. What about you Choji?" answered Shikamaru while turning to face his friend, who was silently nibbling on some chips. Choji never nibbled on anything edible. Choji shoveled food down his mouth.

The rotund Akimichi started as the pineapple-haired Nara called out to him and answered in a quiet voice. "Ah yes, that'd be cool. Yeah." The auburn haired boy gave a small, sincere smile to the table. "And it's Choji for you two."

Shino simply nodded while Naruto smiled brightly as the breath he was holding escaped him. Shikamaru grinned sideways. A year's worth of troublesome efforts saved. Now onto the really, really troublesome part.

"So Naruto, when do you think you could introduce me to the fundamentals of fuinjutsu?" asked Shino suddenly.

Shikamaru did his best to telepathically send praise to the Aburame heir and smiled. The silent ones were always full of surprise. And the Nara suddenly felt better at occasionally losing to Naruto at shogi. Nara weren't supposed to lose at shogi, not against a non Nara. But Aburame weren't really supposed to open a conversation either. If the blond knew fuinjutsu, then he definitely had brains, and it was acceptable to lose to him once in a while. Shikamaru already knew that Naruto was bright of course. It was just reassuring.

"Well, I'm mostly free on Thursday. But I know you have clan training so I-"

"No, Thursday seems good."

"How much do you know about fuinjutsu, Naruto?" The Nara asked, taking his chance in the lull of the conversation.

"Um, a bit. Hokage-sama says I do well."

Shikamaru blew a low whistle. "You must be impressive if Hokage-sama says that."

"Not really?" The blond scratched his head. "It's not like I can really compare my work with anyone." Shikamaru looked as Naruto cast his eyes downward and muttered. "I still don't know why I chose that…"

"Fuinjutsu is your optional?" Shikamaru asked in disbelief. The last part of the blond's sentence had been muted but the Nara had heard enough.

Optionals were really troublesome things students had to do for the Academy. They started three years before graduation and had to present something big enough to impress the jury to pass. It was where many civilian students failed. Clan children worked with their clan jutsu but civilians had to find something special. Teachers helped of course and many a student did not take too seriously before it was too late, but still. Choosing fuinjutsu as the optional was pretty much unheard of. The stuff was way too complicated.

Naruto nodded. Shino sighed. Choji ceased to eat his chips altogether. Shikamaru did what he did best.

"Troublesome."

Naruto chuckled. "Yeah, kind of." The blond smiled, a bit willfully. "I like it though."

The pineapple haired boy said nothing. There was a story behind it, but he would not ask. Not today.

"What's your Shino? Your optional, I mean."

"I work on a project with my insect. I hope to obtain a breed with particular abilities. I won't say much more but I do believe it will be a good showing."

"What about you Shikamaru?"

The boy smiled as Naruto called him by his name without apparent second thoughts. "Oh well, clan jutsu. I'm trying to get the Shadow Bind jutsu to work. Troublesome, I tell you."

"Why?"

"'cause it's a lot of chakra control and complicated stuff I can't really tell you about. But yeah chakra control. Advanced chakra control."

"How do you practice for that?"

Shikamaru noted the face Naruto currently had. The blond's interest was peaked.

"I walk up and down trees. I try to at least. It's exhausting. You don't learn it 'till later apparently, 'cause it requires a good chunk of stamina we're not supposed to have at our age…" Shikamaru explanation died on his lips as he saw Naruto uncharacteristically vibrate with excitement.

"Could you show me Shikamaru?"

"Errr… As I said, it's really tiring."

"Not a problem. I have good chakra reserves."

How to get Naruto out of his shell, mention chakra control exercises. Shikamaru carefully filled that in a part of his brain.

"Well, yeah I could. How about right after school?"

Naruto nodded excitedly with a grin. "Sure, sure!" The blond turned towards Choji. "And you Choji, what do you do for your optional?"

Shikamaru's friend started once again at being addressed. "Oh hum… Clan jutsu also. We call it the Partial Expansion jutsu. It makes parts of our body grow in mass and size. Can't be much more specific."

"Ah yeah, of course. Don't worry. Sounds cool though." Naruto's excitement dimmed and the grin the blond sported faltered. "So it'll be just me sharing stuff?"

Shikamaru's eyes widened and his Nara alarm blared again. That was troublesome. "Don't worry too much Naruto. Even if you share fuinjutsu with us, it doesn't mean we will get it. It _is_ complicated after all." The brown haired Nara made a show of thinking for a few seconds, "You are right though. I promised you the tree climbing techniques but maybe Shino can throw something in too? And you also Choji, if you're interested? Then we can all learn together."

Naruto's smiled returned, bright, warm, comfortable. Shikamaru thanked the lessons on psychology and took a moment to observe the blond's wide grin. It was a shame the boy rarely smiled.

"That is a sound idea, Shikamaru-san and I do agree to it."

The Nara boy sighed. Aburame were troublesome. "Forget the san, Shino. Please. It really is troublesome."

"As you wish. I'll think about an interesting technique I can share with you all."

Shikamaru discretely elbowed Choji and the rotund boy flailed. "Ah yes! Of course, I'm in. I'll ask my father. He'll have an idea." The Akimichi heir started mumbling under his breath, searching for ideas. "Maybe some grappling moves… They are not really that secret…"

Shikamaru smiled. "We have a deal then, right?"

Naruto nodded happily, Shino nodded seriously, and Chiji kept mumbling. Shikamaru sighed. He had kick-started something and he knew it was going to be troublesome.

Probably worth it, though.

It was the end of the day and all four boys were in the schoolyard, in front of a tree. Shikamaru was right next to the trunk, and Shino, Choji, and Naruto were a few steps behind.

"So, you see the leaf floating exercise?" The Nara asked.

Three heads nodded in assent.

"Well, the goal is to send chakra to the sole of your feet and adhere to the trunk. Too much and you destroy the trunk and too little and you don't stick to it. I'd say it requires little chakra overall but it's a pain to get chakra to your feet, really."

Three heads nodded once again.

"Well… Get to work?" said the Nara with a weird twist to his mouth.

Two boys out of three sweatdropped.

"Let us try that then." offered Shino who neared the tree first.

Naruto stared at the tree, then at the Nara. Shikamaru had not given a demonstration. The blond smiled discreetly. It was probably too much of a pain in the ass for the brown haired boy. He was lazy after all. The pineapple haired boy certainly thought he worked hard enough during clan days.

The blond gathered his thoughts. He had to send chakra to his feet. The boy looked down at the shoes he was wearing then back at the tree. Naruto shrugged. Questions would come after the first step. The blue-eyed boy closed said eyes and focused on the well of chakra swirling in the gate of wonder. As he usually did, the boy took a moment to admire the energy coursing through his body before he attempted to reign it in. The flow was messy. It was certainly smoother than when he had begun the Academy. But nowadays, even his personalized leaf exercise would only take him so far. The flow was tamer than it had ever been yet it was still raging and difficult to properly direct. Maybe forcing it to flood his feet in a certain fashion was indeed a good idea. Along with the fact that he would be able to stick to any and all kind of surface was the added benefit of a peculiar chakra control exercise. Naruto only hoped it would be efficient.

His chakra jumped into his coils, readily taking heed of this particular command. That had never been complicated. It was once the life energy was coursing through his chakra system that he had trouble to direct it. As long as it was in his arms, that was fine. His legs, his head, his torso were next level of annoying. When Naruto tried to push the chakra to his feet, he understood quickly it would be troublesome.

A sneeze returned Naruto to reality and the blond watched as Shikamaru scratched the underside of his nose.

"Well, good job Shino, you'll have it in no time."

Naruto looked on one side of the tree and saw the Aburame heir taking four shaky steps on the trunk before somersaulting back on the ground.

"Low chakra reserves often equates good control and due to the symbiosis, people of my clan have rather reduced reserves," Shino explained, downplaying the mild success.

"Still impressive," complimented Choji.

Naruto gave Shino a small smile. "Yeah, good job." The blond offered before plunging back to his meditative state. He had work to do.

* * *

"Say, Jijie?"

"Yes, Naruto?"

It was Wednesday evening and Naruto had taken refuge in the oh so comfortable couch of the Hokage office. He had hung out all day with his three classmates, from sitting beside them during class, to eating in their company, to practicing once again the tree climbing exercise at the end of the afternoon. The boy was now quite tired and was watching his grandfather. The old man was standing in front of his window, painting the view while humming an old tune. The blond shot a glance at the canvas. He did not know much about painting but he thought his grandfather really was doing a good job and he knew painting relaxed the old man.

Hiruzen firmly brushed the setting sun on the canvas, adding orange to the hues of purple and red. Orange was a delicate color to paint. Too much and it was an eyesore, too little and the final result would lack punch. He knew Naruto wanted to talk. Naruto rarely came to his office nowadays if it was not to talk about something. He knew what had taken place earlier during the week. He was the Hokage after all. But he had no clues about what was going on in the head of his twelve years old surrogate grandson. He could tell the boy was nervous, anxious even yet he wasn't exactly sure why. Recent events were as many hints and Hiruzen had a probably good idea but there was nothing like the boy himself confirming it. People needed to talk. Especially when they were emotionally impaired like Naruto was.

"I think you were right."

Hiruzen perked up. The boy had initiated the conversation. A good sign, the old man was sure of it. "About what, Naruto?"

The blond hesitated a little. "Shino and Shikamaru," the boy eventually said.

"How so?"

"I made friend with them. With Choji too!" There was a burst of energy in the boy's voice. An enthusiasm that Hiruzen had despaired to ever hear again. Something he had not heard for way too long.

"It is a good thing, Naruto. Everybody needs friends."

Silence fell in the fortified room and only the brush depositing paint on the canvas was heard for a time. It was a strangled sob that tore Hiruzen from his art. The Hokage whirled around in a flurry of robes and hurried towards the silently crying blond.

"What is wrong, Naruto?"

"I… It's so strange. I thought you were the only one, Jijie."

The Hokage ran his hand into the mess of blond locks and spikes, and slowly, the cries were assuaged.

"I thought you were the only one. Who looked at me normally. I thought…" The blond sniffed and smiled sadly. "Did you know I wanted power? Do you know why I try at the Academy?"

Hiruzen froze for less than a second but refused to tense and tightened his hug on the blond boy.

"Tell me, my boy." The Hokage asked soothingly, using his grandfatherly voice to the maximum of its charm.

"I thought if I got powerful, then no one would glare at me like they do," began the boy in a hushed whisper. "That if I became strong, maybe took the hat from you, no one would dare." The whisper became hot and venomous but it suddenly disappeared in a twisted, unsure smile. "But now I get three people who look at me like you do. I thought you were the only one Jijie. And then I find three more. And now I don't know anymore Jijie."

The Hokage combed the blond hair in silence for several minutes straight, calming the trembling boy, lulling him into the state right before sleep.

"What don't you know?"

"What I want really," was answered in a drowsy voice.

"Why?"

"'Cause… It feels weird… To have people… Looking at me normally." The blond mumbled, exhausted. "I don't want it… To stop."

Hiruzen nodded and smiled. "I'm sure it won't Naruto. I'm sure it won't,' said the aged Kage.

But the boy was asleep already and probably did not hear him.

* * *

Naruto felt weird. Not the usual weird he felt when in the presence of Shino. The clearly uncomfortable sensations had slowly died down since two weeks ago. The crawl under his flesh, the cold sweat, the block of ice in his stomach, all of that had… Not exactly disappeared but it was definitely better. To be exact, they were at war with exactly antagonistic feelings: a cool warmth in his chest, relaxed shoulders, and a pleasant chill on his skin. It was similar to what he felt in the presence of his grandfather. A calm, a certitude that all was right. Naruto hoped he would come to feel only that in the presence of his friends. Still, he felt weird.

A special kind of weird he had already felt two weeks ago and then a week ago. Naruto felt weird because today was Thursday and he was teaching Shino, Shikamaru, and Choji the basics of fuinjutsu. It felt weird to not be alone on Thursday. Thursdays were his to do what he pleased with them. Thursdays were the days he could unwind. Thursday was Taco-day, or something. Choji's words, not Naruto's.

So not only had his routine been disturbed but it had been disturbed in a way he could never have imagined. He was the center of attention of three people. It was not the hateful notice of the villagers. It was not the admiration at something he did right. It was the attention students had for a teacher. And it was a very special kind of attention. The three boys were impressed by his knowledge but it was not the first time Naruto demonstrated knowledge. The difference was that, in most cases, the other three had also possessed the same knowledge already. So, by demonstrating knowledge of a subject they had no idea about and that, in addition, they pictured as overly tough to learn, Naruto had sparked their admiration.

Yet there was something more to it. The three heirs had the same spark in their eyes people had when talking to a powerful shinobi. They had the slight bow to their head the villagers had in the presence of the Hokage. Naruto had their respect.

And that was weird, the blond decided. It was so weird that the blue-eyed boy could not even tell if it fell good or bad. He was too weirded out at the moment to choose.

Naruto shook his head slightly and focused on his three students. He supposed the three boys were that, in effect. The blond focused on the clan heirs and took stock of them. The Nara had his lazy attitude up for appearance's sake, the Akimichi was eating some chips, and the Aburame was silent. They were gathered around a small bundle of twigs and leaves.

"Ok, before we begin, any questions on last week material?"

All three boys shook their head. Naruto nodded and flashed them a smile.

"Good. Then Choji, could you repeat what fuinjutsu is about? In your own words, please."

Fuinjutsu was a lot about memory and it was a good test.

"Sealing is about storing matter or chakra on a receptacle."

Naruto nodded and kept his smile on but sighed internally. The blond would never pretend he had a good grasp of fuinjutsu. It felt weird to teach the three, after all. But he also felt that Choji's understanding was too limited. Fuinjutsu was much more than the Akimichi's rather basic definition.

"What about you Shikamaru?"

The Nara shot Naruto a dead glance and scratched his right ear with his pinky. "Troublesome. I'd say sealing is an alternative way to our classical hand seals to manipulate matter and chakra."

The blond nodded in return. Shikamaru's version was different. The vision was different, still, it was not encompassing all that fuinjutsu could be in Naruto's eyes.

"What would you say, Shino?"

The Aburame allowed himself a few seconds to think his answer through. "I'm afraid I do not see what you want me to see Naruto. I'll humor you and say that I see sealing much like opening and closing a lock on a potential force."

Naruto smiled. "Well, you three aren't wrong. But you see only one face of the coin." The blond scratched the back of his next. "You're probably right though. There's probably no good definition of fuinjutsu," said the whiskered boy in an apologetic tone. "But never limit yourself to too narrow a view!" He suddenly exclaimed with a rarely seen passion, his right clenched tightly in a fist and shaking it with defiance. A fire that only surfaced when speaking about sealing. It took a moment for Naruto to gather his bearing and again, his hand scratched his neck.

"Right. So. The two fundamentals principles?" asked the blond, a little bashful after his outburst.

"All that has been done can be undone. Everything can be done, given the price is paid," answered Shino solemnly.

Naruto nodded with a frown, his features frozen in a mask of utter seriousness. "Exactly. Never draw a seal hastily, the price could be way more than you expect."

All three boys nodded. The perspective to die because it was what the seal demanded to activate was something Naruto had drilled in them carefully. For the entirety of their very first session, in truth.

"Now, what is a prong?"

"They are the central elements of the seal, right?" Choji began, dredging up memories from last week. "You need at least three for a seal to work. They… Do stuff?"

The blond Uzumaki smiled at the Akimichi. "I think you can use Shikamaru's analogy with our hand seals, Choji. Each prong is a hand seal and they bend matter and chakra the same way head seals do."

"So I was right in my definition? Closer than Choji I mean?" interjected the Nara suddenly.

"Yes and no. Choji is pretty close too when he said that sealing is about storing things into other things. Shino is close too when he says you close and open seals. It's the very fundamentals of a storage scroll, right?"

The Nara nodded and muttered a "troublesome" under his breath.

"I really don't get how it can be all that." Choji wondered, scratching the swirl on his left cheek. "I mean, no I get it, but I can't see where it leads. A storage scroll is a storage scroll."

Naruto shot a sideways grin at the portly boy and chuckled. "Yeah, I thought so at first. So now, let me ask you a question." Blue eyes stared at brown and Naruto's grin enlarged. "Can you store fire, Choji?"

The Akimichi pursed his lips. "No?"

"Wrong."

Choji's eyebrows shot high under his spiky mane of light brown, auburn hair. "Really?"

"Yep. No one does it because you have katon jutsu to light a campfire and combat application is a bit complicated but you can store fire. You just need to design the prongs the right way."

And having said that, Naruto pulled a small scroll and unfurled it, revealing a circle, three black points forming a triangle of sort, and the kanji for Fire in the middle of everything. With a sonorous "release" from Naruto, a flame leaped out of the seal and shot at the pile of twigs and dried leaves in between Naruto and the three heirs.

"That's… Cool."

"Troublesome."

"Impressive."

Naruto smiled. "Now let's go back to how to design a seal."

Iruka watched and listened as the Uzumaki boy taught three clan heirs the fundamentals of fuinjutsu.

The demon, not the Uzumaki, Iruka corrected himself with a sneer. The brown haired chunin sighed and his grimace faded. He did not know what to believe anymore. He had observed the boy since the beginning of the year. He had tried his best to confound the beast, to reveal Uzumaki was nothing but a danger. A demon ambushed and ready to pounce. He had found nothing but a blond, blue-eyed, shy, socially awkward, clever boy. Iruka tried once again to contort his face into an angry sneer but failed.

Either the boy was a boy and was in effect the warden of the beast, or the boy and the beast were one and the same. Believing the latter would be simply spitting on the memory of the Fourth Hokage. Believing the former would make Iruka one horrible human being.

One could argue that it was the demon trapped inside the boy that influenced him and made him learn fuinjutsu, only for the blond teen to open the cage. That would not explain why it would take the pain to make friends and explain the sealing art to them. Some would say for appearance's sake of course. But at this point, it was simply paranoia only the worst conspiracy theorist displayed. Such reasoning was based on nothing but senseless fear. The boy had never attacked anyone, only defended himself. He had never shown any kind of suspect tendency. And again, Iruka knew barely anything about fuinjutsu, only what was required to know as a teacher. Could he trust in the seal designed by the Yondaime to keep the demon at bay yet conveniently chose to believe it wasn't strong enough to keep the boy from being influenced?

The cognitive dissonance was too much for the scarred man. He wanted someone to blame. He wanted something to bear the brunt of the fault for the death of his parents. The Uzumaki was such an easy victim to accuse of all wrongs ever committed. And it was treason of the beliefs of Konoha. It was stepping on the Yondaime's wish to respect the boy as a hero. It was making Naruto a pariah and a stranger in the city of the Will of Fire. Because Iruka, and so many others, were too cowardly to let go of the people they had lost, too cowardly to let the dead rest in peace, they decided a lone child would endure their sorrow. Their fear. And then their hatred.

Iruka reported his attention to the group of four boys and was once again impressed by the prowess the blond boy of the lot demonstrated in fuinjutsu. To think Naruto had been bright enough to learn almost alone, with only the right push, every once in a while, by the Hokage. For a second, Iruka imagined what the boy would be capable of if he had a teacher. Shame dug a deep, uncomfortable void from his chest to his stomach and the chunin looked away. Correction. If Iruka had done what was expected of him, if Iruka had done his job properly, then Iruka would know what Naruto was capable of.

The chunin turned heels and left the schoolyard. He had a class to teach. He felt a bitter taste invade his mouth at the thought. He was going to attend to children who did not put half the efforts in their work a certain blond student did. Iruka Umino decided he needed some answers about himself.

Hopefully, he would find them in a bottle of sake or two.

* * *

"How is he?"

"Fine. As fine as can be in his situation." A pause. "You could see him, you know."

"Oh, so now I can see him? I thought I was supposed to wait until he was a graduated genin."

"You know-"

"No sorry." A deep breath. "I have myself to blame just as much as you."

"Seeing him would definitely alleviate that."

"Yeah." A snort, laced with derision. "Hello, kid. I should have been here. I should have been here but I chose to follow orders I wasn't forced to heed. I'm a coward but please forgive me."

"You are too harsh on yourself. You're a soldier, it is normal to follow orders."

"Even when it betrays the beliefs you were raised into? No, let's stop making excuses. We were both cowardly and afraid. We let sorrow dominate our choices when it should have been love. And now we're left with regrets."

"It is not too late you know? He wants company. He needs company-"

"Company we should have been here to provide. Company he deserved by rights of birth and burden."

A sigh, heavy with remorses. "I promised him answers you know. And I promised you that you'd be the one to give them to him."

"I'll tell him. As soon as he is a genin. It won't change much now, the time is near."

Another sigh, this time of lassitude. "Shall we discuss the rest?"

"We shall. The traitor is on the move. The problem is, he is bizarrely sloppy about it. I know he never held me in high regard but I cannot believe he would be so arrogant. I'm still the best spy in the elemental nations."

"What are you certain of?"

"He has his own village. It's more a collection of hideouts but the result is the same: he is enrolling peasants, orphans, slaves, anything goes, and trains them as shinobi."

"Little more than cannon fodder."

"Some are dangerous, mostly due to his experiments. But yeah, the rest is cannon fodder."

"He cannot believe he will achieve anything alone."

"He does not. He is in contact with our west and northwest."

"Will the Rock move?"

"I cannot say. If the Fence-Sitter decides Grass and Waterfall are worth some blood, then yes. They are still reeling from the blow we dealt to them. They don't have the capacity to project too much force but I cannot tell what the old crook is thinking."

"No one does. What about Sand?"

"They are much more susceptible to move. Given the state of their economy and their strained relationship with their foolish daimyo, they could be tempted to get River in their lap. And given that they are not occupied with national defense, they can project a good chunk of their military."

"That would anger their daimyo terribly."

"If they fail. If Sand, Rock and the traitor attack us on three different fronts, they could succeed. If River tips in their zone of influence, then he would probably slap them on the wrist and enjoy the rice and the tea, while Sand retrieves the policing contracts."

"I will use the Scroll of Alliance to wipe my bottom the next time I go to the toilet."

"Might as well."

"Is there nothing we can do?"

"Apart from giving them River? I fear not."

"We could negotiate a bunch of important contracts with them."

A deep breath. "Maybe. But would that be enough or just fan their greed? I can't say."

"What about Grass and Waterfall?"

"I'm confident Waterfall will stand by us. They don't have fond memories of Rock's occupation troops and we were welcomed like bloody heroes when we ousted the bastards. Waterfall will be with us if only to be against Rock."

"I see. And Grass?"

"Grass supports us because we recognize their independence. Rock wants them as part of their national territory. The independentist sentiment is strong as of now, but there is a growing proportion of the population supporting the idea of annexation. I suspect a black op of Rock is cultivating that idea since a while now, with various propaganda operations, some more overt than others. Could not get anyone to spill their guts but the sheer bullheadedness betrays them just as much as a straight confession."

"I'd like to believe we are just as bullheaded."

"True, but we are not founding any black ops of this kind in Grass… You keep Root on a leash right?"

"Of course. Now, what happens if push comes to shove?"

"A civil war and Rock projecting some forces under the pretense of peacekeeping maybe? Or a civil war and Rock black ops swarming everywhere to ensure the outcome."

"Let's pray it does not come to that." A sigh. "Cloud?"

"They enjoy Mist's current turmoil to claim some islands to their immediate south and they are happy terrorizing Frost, as usual. I'd say we don't have to fear anything from them yet."

"At least we have that going for us. Anything else?"

"Apart from the fact that all this is way too easy to see? No, nothing."

"It could be reverse psychology? He was good at that. And whoever you are, an army requires a lot of resources. You cannot levy a substantial amount of troops and keep everyone in the dark about it."

"Yeah, could be. But my guts tell me there is more… Do you have any results from the heuristic team?"

"Unfortunately not. And honestly, I doubt they'll find anything. I don't want to doubt you, but your theory is far fetched."

"That it is. But I can't shake the feeling I'm missing something."

Silence, for a few seconds. "Where are you headed?"

"I'll keep watching Rice."

"Take care of yourself. And be there for his graduation."

"Of course, sensei."

 **A\N: I hope you enjoyed. Naruto is changing. The world is not waiting for him. Don't forget to leave a review or send a PM, it's always cool to know how the readers feel.**

 **P.S: Grammarly is drunk and for some reason, I have weird stuff happening with the line breaks. Not my fault.**


End file.
